Chapter 4
The inside of Sugarcube Corner smelled good. A little too good. Sumac found his mouth watering and he desperately wanted some of the sweet treats. But he had no bits and there was no way he was about to ask for a freebie. As he stood there, his stomach growling, he felt the keen sting of being impoverished.
Much to Sumac’s alarm, a pink pony approached. Sumac took a step backwards, wondering if he could still make a break for it, but realised that Pinkie Pie was a much faster pony than he was. He also realised that she looked sad. Upon this realisation, his muscles went limp and he stood there, looking up at a saddened Pinkie Pie, which was a miserable sight indeed.
“Hiya, Sumac.” Pinkie Pie sat down upon the floor next to the little colt. She wrapped a foreleg over Sumac’s withers and pulled him closer to her. She gave him a friendly squeeze and then heaved a forlorn sigh.
“Hi.” Sumac shivered at his own nervous reply. It was far too squeaky and shrill. He hated the sound of his own voice. He felt bad for Pinkie Pie but he didn’t know how to comfort her. He really didn’t understand Pinkie Pie.
“Pebble is upstairs, brushing her teeth and her mane.” Pinkie heaved another sigh. “I messed up, Sumac… I messed up. Nothing seems to be working. She’s so much like her mother, but she’s also not like her mother. I can deal with Maud. I can cheer Maud up. I know all of the right things to do to make Maud happy. But Pebble… I keep messing up and I think she hates me.”
Sumac took a deep breath, not quite sure what to say or do. “She’s really unhappy—”
“I know!” Pinkie Pie shuddered and pulled Sumac closer. “I know… it’s awful. She thinks that her parents don’t love her anymore and she feels betrayed and then I had to go and screw up and make everything worse and I was just trying to get her out of her room so she would stop sulking. At least, I think she’s sulking. She acts a bit like Maud when Maud sulks. Most ponies can’t tell when Maud is sulking. But I can, and it is really awful when she does. Maud was sulking when she left Ponyville because Pebble said she hated her and never wanted to see her again.”
Boomer shifted on Sumac’s horn and he felt her tail slithering around his ear. His body jerked from the unexpected tickle, but to his credit, he did not laugh. He twisted his head around and looked up at Pinkie, who was sitting beside him. He sat down with a muted plop and tried to think about what to say. He didn’t have a lot of experience in comforting sad ponies, only Trixie.
“I even tried sitting down and talking to her like an adult, because that is what Tarnish does when she’s upset, but that only made it worse. I think. I don’t really know.” Pinkie Pie shook her head and when she blinked her eyes, they shimmered with tears.
As Sumac sat listening to Pinkie Pie pour her heart out to him, he saw her ears perk. Pinkie jerked her head up, sniffled, blinked away a few tears, coughed, and then a forced smile appeared upon her face. Sumac could tell that it was a fake smile, the sort of smile that adults had when they didn’t want to look sad or angry. The sort of smile that could infuriate most foals that knew how to spot a fake. Smart foals. Gifted foals. Foals like Pebble.
“She’s coming,” Pinkie Pie’s voice sounded a bit alarmed and she let go of Sumac, “just try to be her friend, thank you so much Sumac Apple. I’ve prepared a few treats for the two of you to take with you and there is a gemstone for Boomer.”
Blinking, Sumac realised he hadn’t told Pinkie about Boomer or her name. Somehow, Pinkie had mystified him. Everything she did defied logic or explanation. There was no understanding it. Sumac felt his skin crawl. He liked understanding things. He liked having things make sense. He was skeptical of anything and everything he didn’t understand, and he didn’t understand Pinkie, not in the slightest.
He saw Pebble on the stairs. She was wearing a blue smock that had white polka dots on it. She was also wearing a blue sun hat that had a white band. A well made set of saddlebags, sized to her proportions, hung at her sides. As she came down the stairs, he noticed that she looked at everything in the room but Pinkie Pie. Observing this, Sumac could not help but feel even worse for Pinkie. It had to be awful to be Pinkie.
Pinkie vanished in a pink blur, speeding off into the kitchen, and then returned a few seconds later, carrying a package in her teeth. She stuffed the package into Sumac’s saddlebags, gave Sumac a gentle nudge on his right front leg, and then she was gone, leaving behind the scent of spicy, sugary goodness.
“Ready to go?” Pebble asked in a flat voice.
Sumac nodded, but didn’t say anything because he didn’t want his voice to squeak.
“Good, we’re leaving.” Pebble cast a glance around the room, turned her head, looked in the direction of the door Pinkie Pie had disappeared through, and then returned her gaze to Sumac. “Hi, Boomer, how are you?”
The hatchling made no reply and Sumac made ready to follow Pebble as she turned to exit out of the door. He too, cast a glance at the door that Pinkie had vanished through. He knew there was a problem, but he had no idea how to fix it. It was an adult sized problem and just thinking about it made Sumac feel small, useless, and helpless.
As he and Pebble walked together, Sumac kept an eye out for anything green and mean. Sumac strolled with the experienced gait of a long distance walker. During his short life, he had walked hundreds, maybe thousands of miles. He moved with a smooth, fluid grace, his head turning from side to side as he kept an eye out for danger, something he did when he walked across the length and breadth of Equestria with Trixie.
As much as he had wanted a sweet treat in Sugarcube Corner, they were now sitting in his small saddlebags, forgotten. He was too worried about Pebble, Pinkie Pie, and spotting something mean and green. Fluttershy’s cottage was outside of town and was a fair walk from Sugarcube Corner, which was almost smack dab in the middle of town.
“Sumac Apple, is that you?”
Sumac froze, three legs on the ground, and his right front hoof still raised. He turned his head towards the sound of the voice. He saw an earth pony mare that he did not know. She was a faint shade of blue and had a darker blue mane. She had blue eyes the colour of lake ice. She was very, very blue.
“Sumac, I think I recognise you by your description,” the mare said, a worried look upon her face. “If only I could have just a moment of your time, please?”
Something brushed up against his side and Sumac realised that Pebble was pressing up against him. Adults could be trusted—most of the time. But this adult knew his name and he didn’t know hers. He blinked and stared at the strange mare.
“My name is Sapphire Gin,” the mare said, introducing herself. For a brief moment, her face pinched with worry. “I am Olive’s mother… now wait, before you run off, please, please give me a chance to speak!”
Sumac braced his legs for a quick escape. Beside him, Pebble let out a snort.
“I wanted to apologise for Olive… she’s very, very troubled… Vermouth and I, we’re trying very hard to set her straight. I understand that she had behaved poorly towards you. I believe that is Pebble there with you. I really am sorry.” The mare drooped and her ears fell down beside her face.
Relaxing a little, Sumac wondered what else the mare might have to say. His ears perked forwards and he tried to look as though he was interested, or at least paying attention. He felt Boomer squirming on top of his head.
“Olive is very difficult to control. Vermouth and I, we are earth ponies… she is a unicorn. She’s smarter than us and she knows it. She flaunts how smart she is. She bullies us as well.” Sapphire Gin shook her head. “We hoped that getting her enrolled in Twilight’s school would get her straightened out. She made a very good presentation about magic… I don’t understand any of it.”
For the second time today, Sumac saw a mare on the verge of tears and he didn’t know how to help them. He blinked, confused, not knowing what to say. She was speaking to him in a very adult manner, perhaps because she knew that he was smart, or perhaps she was accustomed to speaking to Olive in a such a way, because Olive was smart.
“Anyhow, I feel really bad that Olive treats you so badly. I wanted to know if there is anything I could do to make up for it… I mean that… I don’t know what I can do, but I want to apologise.” Sapphire Gin gave the two foals a sad smile.
“Apology accepted,” Pebble said in a dull, flat monotone. “You seem like a nice mare. I’m sorry that Olive treats you so poorly.”
“Why, thank you,” Sapphire Gin replied as she started to sniffle. “Other ponies don’t seem to understand what it is like to be bullied by your own foal… they keep telling us to put our hoof down.” Sapphire’s voice dropped to a low whisper. “She has powerful magic… she scares us. She’s threatened us with horrible things if she doesn’t get her way. We’re just earth ponies. We don’t know how to deal with her.”
Sumac watched as other ponies passed and tried to think about what to say. It was wrong to use your magic to intimidate or threaten others. Trixie had taught him that. He knew a little bit about Trixie and her encounter with the alicorn amulet, but he didn’t know specifics. He just knew that she had made it very, very clear that the only time she might consider spanking him until he couldn’t sit down was if he used his magic to intimidate or harm others.
The idea of a spanking didn’t exactly appeal to Sumac, so he remained on his best behaviour. He wasn’t very skilled at magic anyway and he didn’t like hurting others. He still felt bad for biting Trixie. He thought about how he had launched himself at Olive and felt shame creeping over him. He had wanted to hurt her while lost in the depths of his temper tantrum. He let out a tiny sigh and felt disappointed with himself.
“Sumac, say something,” Pebble whispered, “I think she’s waiting for you to say something.”
Gulping, put on the spot, Sumac felt his mouth go dry. He didn’t know what to say and he stared at the mare that was the mother of the one pony that Sumac couldn’t stand. What did one say to the mother of the pony you didn’t like?
“Sumac is a little shy and quiet,” Pebble said in her most apologetic monotone, which sounded exactly like anything and everything else she said. Flat as week old soda in an open bottle.
“He looks like a very serious looking little colt,” Sapphire remarked as she took a step forwards. “Twilight tells me that both of you are quite gifted.”
“Why does everypony say that I’m such a serious looking little colt?” Sumac asked, finally saying something.
“Because you are,” Pebble deadpanned in reply. “I need to find shade. I can feel the sun burning through my smock.”
“We should probably get going,” Sumac said, glad for an excuse to leave. “It was nice to meet you, Sapphire Gin.”
“Thank you for giving me a chance to talk to you.” Sapphire Gin’s sad smile brightened a bit. “I feel a little better having made an apology.”
Not knowing what else to do, Sumac lifted up his hoof, waved, and then watched as Olive’s mother took off at a trot. He heard her sniffling and wished that he had said more or had perhaps done more to make her feel better. He also wished that he had somehow made Pinkie Pie feel better. It was very difficult to be so small and not know what to do to fix things and make them right.
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As bad as it is when a kid successfully bullies their parent's, its even worse when the parents encourage it. Seriously, I have seen this happen. I literally saw a mother teaching her daughter (and friends) how to properly whine and annoy parents into getting toys. It was...disturbing.
Hrm... I see an opening for some bonding between Sumac and his Trixiemama. Hopefully he'll bring Sapphy's problem to Trixie. Pinkie's a tougher issue. Maybe the Relaxed and Maternal Trixie might be able to help there too. After all, showmareship is heavy on practical psychology.
... Olive just got a lot more frightening.
Another chapter?! You are a machine.
7038222
And what can be done about getting older?
7038501
... Alicornification?
7038501
Oh, sorry. I though this was more than old age and Trixie's joints had been ground to dust because she'd been dragging that 2 person wagon much longer than is sensible. Seems like I got the wrong impression, or my mind remembered something in the prequel that isn't actually there.
The magical equivalent of joint replacement surgery came to my mind after the problem was mentioned again in this chapter but if it's simply old age, then I guess it cannot be helped.
7039119
Old age brought about prematurely by draggin' a wagon.
A bad olive ruins the whole martini...
7039453
YES!
7039453
Reading this chapter made me really want a martini. And then you ruined it, you ruiner.
7041295
Dreadfully sorry.
7041865
Olive's bad behavior has left her mother and father shaken.
7041885
It probably doesn't help that she likes to stir up trouble, either.
7041885
Oh...
Oh God...
That's just...awful.
...
What? Did you think I was going to continue the pun train? No. It has to end, before it gets even more stirred up.
Oh son of a b***
7046073 bullys wouldn't care and neither do I!
At least I'll get over it or forget.
And my comment was more of a question than a statement. Considering how far back the line goes to bribg Apples and Pies as one and all the way back down to Maud. I'm too lazy to do the math and was wondering if Kudz had a headcannon for it.
Wiat... Chapter 4? Son of a... I didn't favorite this. Thank you person who replyed to me, I appreciate it.
Kid, that never gets any easier to deal with.
Parents bullied by their kid. Uhhh, insta-fail. Yes, she's a unicorn--- but in the show unicorn foals are barely capable of lifting small items. An earth pony parent would be perfectly capable of taking a switch to their backsides, magic or no magic.
That's not "bullied parents," that's WEAK parents and a spoiled kid.
7041885 If they lack the authority a parent must have, to protect and teach their child, they should stir themselves to seek help with that problem--perhaps the help of another powerful unicorn willing to put in some Nanny time, or in extremis... to serve as a bodyguard to protect them from their own child. Given that in canon, earth ponies can bear unicorn foals, this couldn't be an unheard-of situation.
Olive clearly needs some sort of intervention, otherwise she sounds like she's shaping up to get her own visit from some Wardens at some distant point in the future.
Ask Hiccup?
7371931 But don't get hiccups
If only Pepple only knew how Pinkie Pie felt.
I still feel like this is a rather odd way to do a sequel. So far it doesn't technically have a direction and it's not addressing the huge issue that both these foals have brought up at the end of the first story.Seems like a lot of fluff is being thrown in without any of it, as far as I can tell so far, being tied to what I hope is the main conflict of this story.
7380177 They can be a pain to get rid of.
Damn it, you introduce Olive's parents, and now I really want a Martini.