Chapter 43
The door to the conservatory was open and Flicker Nicker steeled his nerves. Help, it seemed, had arrived, and waited for him within. He took a deep breath, feeling panicked and not understanding why. Unaccustomed to feeling panic, Flicker did not deal well with it. His whole body shuddered as he thought about the spider-hag and the sensation of panic when her four pony legs became eight spider legs. That panic was justified, because, spiders, and this panic was foolish.
It was only a meeting with a group known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders and certainly not anything to worry about. Cautious, he passed through the door and into the conservatory. Lifting his head, he saw them. An earth pony, a pegasus pony, and a unicorn, all sitting on the same couch together. All of them were older fillies, or perhaps very young mares, it was hard to tell. With the way they were looking at him, Flicker began to feel a little out of sorts.
“Hi,” the earth pony said in greeting, “I’m Apple Bloom.”
“Scootaloo,” the pegasus said.
“And I’m all fluffy and cute,” the unicorn added, “but you can call me Sweetie Belle.”
The earth pony gestured at a chair, and then as Flicker went to sit down, she began to talk. “We’re students in university, learning to help ponies like yourself. Ponies with cutie mark problems. We work with Princess Cadance, who supports our efforts, and one day we hope to be a part of her vast network of social workers.”
“It’s a living.” Scootaloo smiled as Flicker sat down and she brushed her short cropped mane away from her face. “You look a little stiff there, Flicker. To start with, you could try relaxing. See, we need for this to go well, just like you do, because we’re being graded on what we learn here.”
Upon hearing this, Flicker actually relaxed a little, being the sort that wanted to help others.
“Okay, okay, that’s a start.” Sweetie Belle put on a pair of reading glasses, pulled out a pen, and then a notepad, which she began writing on as she continued, “We need you to tell us everything you can. Be descriptive. Try and tell us what the problem is and how it affects you. The more you tell us, the more we can help you. Apple Bloom and I are professionals, so you can be very open and honest with us.”
After several seconds, Scootaloo turned to look at Sweetie Belle, her eyes narrowing. “Hey!”
Taking a deep breath, Flicker found himself at ease—well, sort of. For some reason, he was expecting to be grilled in a very clinical fashion, questioned, interrogated. He didn’t know why he expected this, but expect it he did, and the light hearted attitudes of the young mares on the couch was a relief.
“Took you long enough, Scoots.” Sweetie Belle nudged the pegasus pony beside her with her elbow. “It’s amazing… I know the fastest pegasus in the world… and the slowest.”
When Scootaloo turned to look at Sweetie Belle, Flicker’s mouth dropped open and Apple Bloom began laughing. Lifting her hoof, Scootaloo shook it at Sweetie Belle, who ignored the gesture and remained focused upon Flicker.
“So, Flicker, why don’t you tell us about yourself?” Apple Bloom asked as Scootaloo continued to menace Sweetie Belle. “As you can see, we’re all very laid back and you can tell us anything.”
“Anything?” Flicker responded.
“Anything.” Scootaloo dropped her hoof and looked at Flicker.
“Okay…” Flicker took a deep breath, and wondered how to begin.
Sore and stiff, Hennessy found it difficult to keep up with Doctor Sterling as they hurried to the front door. Somepony had asked for him… him and now, he was panicked. Hennessy was a pony that didn’t want to be found, and he wanted to leave the entirety of his old life behind him. He had first been sent to the Baltimare guild, and they had nursed him to somewhat better health after his horrific beating. They had tested his talent a bit, shown him kindness, and then had sent him to Canterlot.
He did not know what to expect, what waited beyond the front door, and he hoped that it wasn’t his father. The colt was glad that Doctor Sterling was armed, and he suspected that Piper would also come to his defense. He did not want to open the door and see his father on the other side, the very idea terrified him and made his stomach clench. He wished that Flicker was here.
In the entryway, Doctor Sterling pulled the door open and Hennessy sucked in a deep breath. Standing in the doorway was a cowering, terrified figure, covered in a ratty, filthy, torn blanket fashioned into a makeshift cloak. Not much could be seen of her, but one front leg was swollen and jutted out at an odd angle just above her fetlock. Hennessy felt his heart shatter inside of his chest.
“Ma.”
“Is that you, Henny? I can’t see so well.” The mare squinted, one eye was swollen shut and was unable to open, the other eye was swollen to the point it could only open a little.
“Good heavens, she has a broken leg!” Doctor Sterling started forward, but halted when the mare began to hobble away on three legs.
“Stay back, unicorn, stay back!”
Shoving past Doctor Sterling, Hennessy went to his mother. “Ma, he’s a friend. That’s Doctor Sterling. He’s very nice and you should let him help you. What happened to you?”
“Your dad… he beat it out of me that I helped you leave. He and your brothers, my own sons, they beat me and cursed me for foaling out a faggot. The bastard broke my leg, Henny… he broke my leg! I came to be with you, but you weren’t in Baltimare, and they gave me a train ticket to come here.”
“And the guild there didn’t help you?” Doctor Sterling asked.
“I ain’t got no need for no charity!” the mare snapped as she hobbled and limped back a little more.
“But you took the train ticket.” Doctor Sterling shook his head in disbelief. “Madam, you are nothing but broken bones and trauma! I don’t even understand how you are up and walking!”
The mare did not reply, but turned to look at her son. “Without you around to let go his anger on, your father went plumb crazy. He’s drinking more than ever and picking fights with everyone. Without you there, I decided that there ain’t nothing left for me there, so I came here to this city of faggots—”
“Ma, you gotta stop saying that…”
“But ain’t that what this is? The city of faggots? That’s how your father done tells it. They’s all faggots and they steal the foals of others to carry on their unnatural lives—”
“Mama, Pa lied about a lot of things. The unicorns here ain’t all gay, they won’t use their magic to make you a slave, and they don’t go around stealing years of your life to make themselves live longer.” Hennessy reached out to his mother, his whole body shaking, and his voice cracked as he tried to speak. “Ma, let Doctor Sterling help you.”
“No!” the mare squealed as she shuffled away from her son.
“Doctor Sterling, as her son, you done have my permission to do what needs to be done,” Hennessy said, his voice cracking even more.
“What? No! Stay back from me!” The mare started to try and run on three legs, but didn’t make it very far, going limp and falling.
But she never hit the ground. His jaw set, his mustache quivering, Doctor Sterling lifted the battered, broken mare in his magic, gave a reassuring nod to the witnesses on the street, and then began to carry the mare inside. Hennessy, left standing outside, looked at all of the rubberneckers and witnesses, not knowing what to say.
“I’m sorry that y’all had to see something so private. I wish I knew what to say to make this better.”
Feeling awkward, Hennessy waved to the ponies around him, then retreated inside.
Flicker felt as though he had been very descriptive, or at least he had done his best. The sounds of Sweetie Belle’s pen scratching filled his ears and kept the silence of the room from being unbearable. Perhaps he had told them too much. What if they judged him? What if he horrified them? He had told them a lot of himself, including some of his secrets, all with the hope that he could get better.
Not knowing how they felt was killing him. The seconds passed and the most awful thoughts passed through his mind. Apple Bloom was rubbing her chin, Scootaloo was watching Sweetie Belle write, and Sweetie Belle was focused upon finishing her notes. The seconds turned to minutes and Flicker felt as though he might burst.
“It sounds like,” Apple Bloom began, “you slipped into a type of cutie mark zen. Scootaloo came up with that, she learned about this thing called zen when she was learning some hoof-fu. Zen is like a perfect state of being, a togetherness of the body and the mind, and we’ve seen this in other ponies.” Beside Apple Bloom, Scootaloo nodded as the earth pony spoke. “In the others we’ve observed, they’re just happy and content as they fulfill their purpose.”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo said, picking up, “normally, this is a good thing, achieving a state of happiness as you work towards your purpose. But you sound really unhappy. You’ve lost a part of yourself. It sounds like you’ve slipped completely into serving your purpose. I guess it is possible to be a little too zen… I hadn’t thought about the dangers of tuning out everything else so completely.”
“Can I get better?” Flicker asked, feeling just a tiny bit worried by what he was hearing.
“Yes,” all three young mares said together in a way that wasn’t creepy at all.
Pointing her hoof at Flicker, Apple Bloom gave him a reassuring smile and said, “You need to get outside of your own head. Start learning about the interests of your new friends. Do things with them, fun things, activities that aren’t necessarily work related. By developing an interest in what your friends do, and why they do it, you won’t be so wrapped up in your own thoughts and trapped inside of your own head. You need to learn to balance your training, your education, and all that other stuff, with some leisure time.”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo nodded and continued, “Teach them. Really. Try teaching them how to do some of the stuff you know how to do. By helping them understand it, you’ll have to try thinking how they might think, and that will get you out of your own head. That’s where we should start.”
“Okay.” Flicker found this quite agreeable.
“Yeah, Scootaloo is right. We need to shuffle around your interests.” Apple Bloom made a gesture with her hoof as Sweetie Belle kept taking notes. “This hits really close to home for us, because we do everything together, and we’re always trying out new stuff because one of us wants to try it, so we all try it.”
“And most of the time, we end up covered in tree sap,” Sweetie Belle muttered as she scratched away with her pen. She paused in her writing, looked up, and focused upon Flicker. “By having so many overlapping interests with one another, we have a closeness that few can imagine. We tend to know what the other of us is thinking. We don’t get too wrapped up in ourselves, or too self focused, or too self absorbed, problems that we’ve all seen in other ponies that sometimes have cutie mark problems. See, it’s like… tailoring, yeah, that’s it, tailoring. Sometimes, you get a cutie mark… and it is the cutie mark that you’ve always wanted, it’s perfect. But then you notice that it doesn’t fit very well. It might have a tight feeling, or rub you the wrong way, or might make you uncomfortable at times. Gosh, I sound so much like my sister right now.”
“But you’re right, Sweetie.” Scootaloo looked over at the unicorn beside her for a moment, then with a turn of her head, she returned her attention to Flicker. “Sometimes, the cutie mark you want can feel a little restrictive. It is up to you to make it fit, and you do that through a dedicated effort of self-improvement and self-affirmation. You’ve fallen into a cutie mark hole, and it is up to you to pull yourself up and out of it.”
“Your assignment, should you chose to accept it” —Apple Bloom gave Flicker a reassuring smile— “is a regiment of self-acknowledgement and self-improvement, along with gaining a better understanding of your friends and their interests. Can you do that?”
“Yeah.” Flicker felt confident that he could do this.
“Good. Then we’ll be back to see you in about a week or so. We’ll want progress reports. Maybe even keep a journal so we can read your thoughts, but only if you want to.” Scootaloo leaned up against Apple Bloom and let out a contented sigh. “I’m feeling my sense of purpose right now, and it sure does feel nice.”
“It’s easy to understand how some ponies might fall into it,” Sweetie Belle remarked as she made a few more notes. “Like anything else that feels good, I guess it can become addictive, like gambling, or por—”
Apple Bloom cut Sweetie Belle off. “Plenty of other self-destructive behaviours that can cause addiction. A cutie mark isn’t all that different. You’re supposed to feel good when you serve your purpose… if a pony didn’t feel good from doing what they do best, there would be no motivation to do it, and then a cutie mark wouldn’t serve much of a point.”
“That makes sense, actually.” Flicker bowed his head in concentration.
“We have to go… we have a class in about an hour and a half, and we need to get ready.” Sweetie Belle gave Flicker a gracious smile full of warmth and sincerity. “Thank you, Flicker, I feel that we’re going to learn a lot from you, and what we learn we’ll be able to help others with.”
“Yeah, thanks!” Scootaloo added.
Apple Bloom’s ears stood erect as Sweetie Belle stuffed her notebook away. “We’ll be back in a week or so, good luck, and don’t be afraid to ask your friends for help!”
“Thank you, all of you.” Lifting his head, Flicker watched as the trio made ready to leave. Already, he had ideas, thoughts, he was forming a plan to put into action. He felt an immense feeling of gratitude, but he didn’t know how to express it, and all that came out was, “See you in a week.”
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So... are we going to get to see the Wardens and possibly some Royal Guard Visiting a backwater tribalist bigoted hick town soon?
Oh my goodness the CMC were delightful this chapter, but none moreso than Sweetie Belle. Just look at this line:
Is she speaking from experience? The first could be just off the top of her head, but the latter? She's in a culture without internet and therefore instant access to everything. How much porn has she stashed? At her worst did she have a magazine under every surface of her bedroom?
Eh, I'm amused and I would love to see more of the older CMC in your stories.
Damn... The CMC being helpful. Also poor Hennessey's mom...
7794891
Better them than Lord Death of Murder Mountain, when he finds out what the rest of Hennessy's family did to his Ma.
7794901
(In my own personal headcanon, Sweetie Belle discovers her sister's trashy romance novel collection one day and doesn't come out of her room for a week)
7794905
"They were all rats; they had to burn"
Cutie Mark Crusader Cutie Mark Therapists, YAY!
Seems accurate.
Geeze, Hennessy's mother. I hardly know how to react to how his family life is shaping up.
Seems like decent enough advice from the CMCs.
Edit: For some reason I read that por– as pork and was really confused.
7794922 That sounds like a story!
Two other great pieces on FimFiction about ponies getting too much into their marks are both by Estee. The entire story in A Mark Of Appeal deals with marks and their impact. The first part of the chapter entitled Sgraffito of the story Triptych talks about "falling into your mark" and references the danger this posed to Twilight. The first part of this chapter can be read without spoiling hardly any of the rest of the story (you should read both stories anyway, because they have great world building).
Not sure what to make of Hennessy's mom. She doesn't want charity yet takes the ticket. Is scared of unicorns and yet still goes to what she was taught is the den the home of unicorns where they hold complete sway.
I do ponder Flicker's parents as well and their attitude about education of Earth Ponies considering they live so close to Ponyville
Interesting to see the future CMC what they are doing fits well with helping others.
7794994
His mother, a pegasus, gave up her son so he could be educated. If you recall, she wanted him to be educated.
His father, an earth pony, wanted the same thing.
Mother's got an interesting case of near-Stockholm right there. I can't tell if she actually believes/agrees with what she's saying or if she's simply following the line laid down by her husband thanks to his abuse.
7795020 but yet they don;t want that or seem to for Knick Knack
7795082
They do. I think you might have misread something.
Something ain't right with Hennessy's pa.
I don't mean in the usual sense of "there's something wrong with him." No, I mean there's something wrong, like... you know that feeling you get when you see something, and it looks like what you'd expect it to but for some reason your guts get all squirmy and you don't know why?
That's the feeling I'm getting right now.
7795083 there is a chance I thought that was one of the things Flicker blow up at his mother about
7795088 Sadly there are really people out there that believe and act like Henessys father. Worst yet he's passed on his beliefs to his sons and they are at the moment likely to pass it to their off spring
I just realized something. Earth Ponies, depending on the level of strength have to hold their emotions in check, almost on an instinctual level if how Maud was described when she was born and Pebbles own lack of acting like a usual foal is any indication. Makes me wonder if in the grand scheme of things Hennesy's 'Father' and 'Brothers' are quite weak, while Hennesy, who does seem more emotional seems much more in control of his emotions and is therefore going to end up quite strong... much stronger than any of those sacks of crap and that is part of their reasons for mistreating him and the denying him food besides being gay: They can't stand the thought of a "Faggot" being stronger than them.
And that could also be why they went to town so badly on the mother. Not only did she help Hennesy, but he is away from them and their attempts to keep him from ever being better than them because of her.
huh. She's a hell of a Mom. She marched through hell and High Water with a busted leg, just to find her son... I like her.
"Lord Death of Murder Mountain (and friends)" sounds like a much healthier set up. Go CMC, go~!
I wonder if Lentil Pakora can help heal Hennessy's ma?
7794891 At least Ma Walker was delivered from 'Deliverance'.
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7794932 Sweetie Belle has been Pr0n-king!
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7794891 The fruit baskets will be explosive.
7795127
I'm not even talking about his beliefs, although that is concerning, now that you mention it. I mean, he does know that the Princesses live in Canterlot, right? If this is his opinion of unicorns, what must his opinion of alicorns be?
I think my guts are squirmy because this has
heresysedition written all over it....get the whalers, theirs a hick town to be destroyed
7795354
Alicorns don't exist. They are all part of a conspiracy perpetuated by a secret society of unicorns to keep hardworking earth ponies like him down in the dirt. The sun and moon actually move on their own, but unicorns want everypony to believe that magic is responsible for something so essential. Wake up, sheeponies!
Considering how easy it is for conspiracy theories to crop up in real life, they're probably even more widespread in a world filled with magic.
I fear when Flicker, being a) Flicker and b) very family oriented, finds out the details of what has transpired, he may burst into actual flames.
7794891 or worse... Flicker
7794901 playcolt magazines... You don't have to have internet for them
7794922
7795081 in case of wife's you also have Battered woman syndrome
7795173
Except that it's been well established in the Weed-verse that Maud and Pebble are enormously strong among Earth Ponies, much as Twilight Sparkle was staggeringly powerful as a Unicorn. That level of extreme strength/power is astonishingly rare in the Weed-verse, IIRC. Granted, a lesser version of your point would logically be true, given how strong Big Mac & Cheerilie have been shown to be in the show, & given that it's implied that Maud is stronger even than Big Mac (& Pebble likely is/will be as well).
7795475
I suppose this might be an unfortunate side effect of keeping the general population in the dark about the things that live in the... well, in the dark. The kind of behavior we see Hennessy's father exhibiting, after all, once caused the entire pony race to break out with a very severe case of windigos. For all that we the audience know, most ponies might actually think of the Hearthswarming story as exactly that: A story, and not a recounting of things which actually happened.
Like, in some ways, I'm not sure I understand keeping the public in the dark about some of the things hiding out there. Horrific spider-ponies from beyond the stars, sure, but why keep secrets about the low octane stuff? If ponies knew that the Crown was keeping them safe from that stuff, it would increase trust in the Crown, and damage the ability of the Ascendancy to draw a following.
Probably.
I have a feeling that Flicker has to pay Hennessey's pa a visit.
For no particular reason mind you, because socializing is reason enough.
7795636
Don't worry, that's a feature, not a bug! Especially not a spider.
7795672
Or there'd be assholes who'd go "We don't need the crown to keep us safe from this" and try to handle it themselves getting themselves and others killed by looking for the trouble. Or they'd think that crown agents are there for other purposes as the locals know better and would interfere to the point they get themselves, others and possibly the agents the crown sent killed.
And when that does happen those that survive will blame the crown for the deaths happening rather than the stupid assholes who thought they knew better.
7796738
Ah, yes, like the guy who's convinced he can take care of his termite problem as good as or even better than a professional exterminator. I hate to say it, but in the cases like you suggested, it might just be better to let them try and fix their own problems, but stay on standby while they do it so you can contain the damage. Some people can only learn in that specific way.
The good news is that they usually only have to do it once before they get with the program, and even if they don't, everyone around them generally will because they see what happens and don't want to be that guy.
7796879
Just look at the training Flicker is getting for rats.
Now, just imagine some dumb as dirt type lifting up the ponyhole cover in the street and thinking, I can go into the sewers and kill rats!
7796894
Curiously, there's been an observed rise in global idiocy rates as more people more into cities where doing dumb things is significantly less likely to get them killed.
Now, by bringing this up in regards to the topic at hand, I'm not saying anything.
I'm just saying.
7795254 sadly they got confused and got the pomegrenades rather than the pomegranates. they are a lot more juicy though.
7796894 turns out the dumb and dirt guy was a natural at killing them........
also turns out he was actually a dragon so him being smart does not really matter when even fifty thousand rats couldn't harm him.
Hmmm. I think a part of me might prefer this universe over your Chase universe.
Albeit i think it is not because of just one thing. Chase clearly sharpened your skills in world building and such so it feels more sound with this one. Along with writing.
Also the fact these stories are actually broken up into invidiual sections and their own stories helps one digest them easier.
Though it jumping around time nad space can be disorienting XD
The first time I read that i read it "pork". I had to look at that for 10 seconds to click "oh! Porn."
7798416
Porking
Why is it all about Hennessy's father? Wouldn't beliefs that wild stem from generations of paranoia?
That said, I'm extra looking forward to seeing the rest of Hennessy's family.
She means "regimen". Unless you did that on purpose?