Chapter 25
The exciting, confusing, and wonderful day now felt sad. Outside of the movie theatre, sitting on Twinkleshine’s back, Sumac Apple watched as four steadfast friends gathered to say goodbye. For surely this was a goodbye, what else could it be? Before it even happened it felt like a goodbye, as a profound sensation of sadness settled over everything like a shroud.
Craning his head—it was a mighty struggle to do so but he was motivated—Sumac tried to see what was happening. He idolised these ponies, all of them. Daring Do, Rainbow Dash, Tarnished Teapot, and Vinyl Scratch. To see them looking so down in the dumps after being so happy together made Sumac’s heart feel as though it might shatter into a million pieces.
“Did you bring one?” Daring Do asked of Rainbow Dash.
“Uh-huh.” Rainbow nodded and her hooves shuffled in the snow. This was a rare moment of her being down on the ground, and she stood close to her friends. “Do we actually want to eat this awful thing?”
“Every year you ask that same question.” Tarnish, standing tall, appeared to be standing in a protective, some might even say possessive stance. There was something confident about him in this moment, at this time, and maybe even a little something about him that was scary. “And every year, we do.”
Vinyl pulled something out from the pocket of Rainbow Dash’ flight jacket and Sumac saw foil glinting in the sun. The white flash was blinding, almost painful, and he squinted so he could see better. Vinyl was opening it, tearing the foil, and all four friends looked… disgusted? He struggled to see what it was, what the big deal was, and when Vinyl shivered, he suspected it wasn’t from the cold.
Something, whatever it was, was broken into four pieces and each piece was given to a companion. Maud moved a little closer, sniffing, and then she backed away, shaking her head. Did it smell bad? Sumac was filled with so many questions, but he remained quiet, not wishing to disturb the solemn moment. The sound of his own breathing was almost too loud in his own ears while he watched them eating.
“Our friendship stopped the world from ending,” Daring Do said around a mouthful of food. “I think about that often.”
“Oh, I did that with Twilight and my other friends.” Rainbow swallowed, licked her lips, and then added, “I have really amazing friends. All of them keep saving the world. And I have to keep saving them, because I am the most awesome pony alive.”
“Well, there is no denying that.” Tarnish shuddered and shook, then made a disgusted face. “Ugh, those bars are awful. I swear, every year, they get worse somehow.”
“Every year at just about this time, I still get contacted by Princess Celestia and she offers to make me the Alicorn of Adventure.” Daring Do shuffled up a little closer to her clustered friends, her face filled with sad and regretful lines. “Every year, I refuse her. This year, I will do the same. Rainbow Dash…”
“Yes?” Blinking, Rainbow’s rosy eyes twinkled in the winter sunlight.
“Does it ever bother you that Twilight received the recognition and became a princess? Or myself? As you just stated, your various groups of friends keep saving the world, and I cannot help but wonder, do you feel overlooked?” Daring Do looked into Rainbow’s eyes and Sumac could see a profound sense of… worry? Concern? Something like sadness?
“I’m just not responsible enough for something like that,” Rainbow replied, and her muzzle scrunched. “If there is one thing I’ve learned from being in the Wonderbolts… it is that I am at my best when I am helping others to succeed. It is part of what makes me awesome. I lift others up and I motivate them to be the very best ponies they can be. I’ll let my track record speak for itself.”
“Well, it certainly can’t be argued.” Daring Do started to smile, but it faltered. “I must be going. Already, I have tarried for far too long.”
“Daring, don’t go… come home with me and stay for a while—”
“Oh gosh, we do this every year.” Rainbow’s words cut off Tarnish and she gave him an apologetic nudge on the leg while looking at Daring Do. “You know, I think he’s sweet on you, Daring. If you ever go home with him, I think you’ll become a member of the family.”
“Oh, I am already part of the family.” Daring Do began to chuckle, but her eyes were sad. “Stiff upper lip, Tarnish. I have much work to do before the spring.” Turning her head, she looked over at Maud Pie, who stood a short distance away. “I trust that you will keep our agreement, Maud.”
“Of course,” Maud replied in deadpan. “I have no problem making Tarnish walk the straight and narrow.” After a moment, she had something more to say. “Come home with us… even if it just for a little while. Can’t you just settle down and stay for just a short time?”
“Already, I have stayed too long.” Daring’s words were sad and she let out a long wistful sigh. “Farewell, old friends. I must be going.”
“I wish you wouldn’t.” Tarnish’s tone was one of almost foalish pleading.
Vinyl, in silence, wrapped a foreleg around Daring’s neck in a fierce hug. She squeezed for a moment, her whole body trembling, and it wasn’t long until Rainbow joined, embracing both of them. Rainbow’s cheeks were slick, shiny with tears that glinted like glittering diamonds in the dazzling winter sunlight. Tarnish too, joined the embrace, and then Sumac’s vision blurred over so much that he couldn’t see. Not wanting to cry, his eyes stinging in the cold air, the colt buried his face into Twinkleshine’s pastel pink mane and did his best not to blubber because he didn’t want to be a sissy.
“Goodbye, dear old friends…”
It was, perhaps, the worst part of friendship: friends had to say goodbye. Sumac, given over to introspection, thought about this while the herd walked home together. Saying goodbye to Pebble at the end of the day was painful enough, even though he knew that he would see her again. Having settled down in place, having lived in one spot, Sumac couldn’t imagine going back to his old life, going from place to place, shore to shore, city to village, never staying long enough in one spot for goodbyes to become meaningful.
At the moment, the film was forgotten, the excitement, the sense of adventure, all of the thrills and titillation that he had experienced, all of it was washed away by witnessing the goodbyes exchanged by four fast friends. It was real and therefore, it had meaning. The movie? Not real and to Sumac, it was meaningless.
Yawning, Boomer blinked her eyes and clung to Sumac’s neck. She was a warm scaly thing that tickled him, but the little colt wasn’t in the mood to laugh. In a smoky, chirpy voice she asked, “Why sad? Why?”
“Saying goodbyes, Boomer,” he replied.
“Why sad? Why?” Boomer’s tiny claws prickled against Sumac’s neck and she wriggled beneath the poncho. “Why goodbye sad?”
“It just is.” Sumac didn’t know how to explain it in a way that Boomer could understand it, and in realising this, he came to the conclusion that, perhaps, he didn’t understand it. “Boomer, imagine if you left us and you never saw us again… all of us… your family—”
Sumac was cut off by a shrill honk, followed by the alarming sensation of Boomer thrashing against his soft, vulnerable flesh. Her claws did more than tickle, they pierced his skin while she gripped him, clinging to him in desperation, and then came a continuous stream of steady, heartbreaking smoky honks. It was awful.
“Sumac, what happened?” Lemon Hearts asked as she trotted into place beside Twinkleshine. “Boomer, talk to me… what’s wrong? Sumac?”
“She asked me what was sad about goodbyes and I didn’t know myself and I was busy thinking about stuff and to help her understand I told her to imagine if she never saw us again and she freaked out and now she is slicing my neck!”
With a fretful frown, Lemon Hearts peeled Boomer from Sumac’s neck, revealing tiny, bloodied claws that had pale, cream coloured hairs clinging to them. The little dragoness shot out tiny puffs of smoke with each blaring honk and when Sumac was able to get a better look at her, he could see tears spilling from the corners of her eyes. Up to this point, he had been unaware that she even had tear ducts, as she always licked her eyes to moisten them, which was really gross.
“Oh, you poor dear,” Lemon Hearts said while she held Boomer suspended in her magic. The dragoness was now curled up into a miserable ball and each sob produced an ear piercing blast of sound. “What do I do? How do I fix this?”
“That’s an infant crying.” Cloudy pulled up alongside Lemon Hearts, who was beside Twinkleshine. “There’s no fixing this, no magic words to make this better. She’ll cry it out and then she’ll need cuddles, I suppose. Poor thing, she can’t be that much different than us.”
“I feel bad for what I did.” Miserable, Sumac watched and listened while Boomer bawled, and he had never seen her like this. Blood trickled down his neck and began to scab as it soaked into his pelt. “I was just trying to help her understand… I don’t even understand… goodbyes are awful and I—” Unable to keep it in, Sumac was cut off by his own whooping sob, which hurt a great deal as it clawed its way up his throat and tore free from his mouth.
“This is shaping up to be one of those sorts of days.” Lemon Hearts resigned herself to maternal duties with a sigh and she walked with Boomer held inches in front of her snoot. “I don’t know what happened in the theatre, Trixie won’t tell me and when I asked she just started to blush and she stammered a bunch—”
“I don’t want to talk about it!” Trixie cried from her place in the line, and she kept her head low to the snow while she walked. “Trixie is unable to provide assistance at this time, please move along and ignore the disgruntled showmare.”
“The center does not hold, Lemon.” Twinkleshine slowed her pace a bit so she wouldn’t jostle Sumac quite so much. “Gosh, it’s like it is raining or something, I can feel my back flooding.”
“Twinkle, now is not the time for funny,” Lemon snapped. “How does this happen? We were having such a perfect day!”
“This is life,” Cloudy responded, and she nudged Lemon with a full body bump in an effort of trying to reassure her. “You really can’t control it, the best you can do is endure it. Having a good mate helps”—while saying this, the wise mare glanced in her husband’s direction—“but ultimately your only real option is to be patient. Marble was the little soft one and she could go from laughing to sobbing and then back to laughing in the span of mere minutes. Maud was a good, quiet filly, Pinkie was quiet for a time before she had her change, Limestone talked my ears off and gave me migraines, but it was Marble that taught me how to be patient. There were days where I wanted to throttle her because I’d get so frustrated by her sudden change of moods, and me getting angry only made the problem worse. Even if I didn’t show it, she picked up on it and the tears would come in a flood.”
“Yep!” Limestone nodded her head.
“Throttle?” Lemon squeaked out the word and her eyes were wide with shock.
“Yes, at some point, every mother has a moment where they have reached their breaking point. The ones that claim they haven’t wished to smother their own young are liars, plain and simple.” Cloudy’s eyes narrowed. “It’s okay to feel that way, but how you handle it determines your integrity and character as a mare. You can reach a point where you are so frustrated and worn down that you think all sorts of crazy thoughts… Limestone had colic that lasted for a good three months without relenting and I got worn thin, let me tell you. I endured.”
Laughing, Limestone began to tell a story: “Marble once cried for hours because a butterfly landed on her nose. Mama couldn’t get her to stop, she just kept crying, and finally, Mama lost her patience and left Marble to just cry it out while Mama went into the kitchen to pound dough. The whole house rattled because Mama was—”
“Limestone!” Cloudy’s nostrils flared and she shook her head in disapproval of her daughter’s tale.
“—hitting and punching the dough so hard. So Daddy comes in because he hears Marble wailing her lungs out and he sits down with her and starts talking to her and he finally gets her to say something. She tells him it was pretty… the butterfly was pretty and then she cried so hard that she threw up on Daddy. Pinkie Pie watched it happen and then she blew chunks too, all over Daddy and Marble. Maud wasn’t having any of it and she snatched up Boulder and ran away for a few hours until the stink cleared and I laughed so hard that I ended up puking all over the floor too and Pinkie threw up in my mane and it got in my eye. True story!”
“Motormouth!” Igneous gave his daughter a flinty glare and he too, shook his head.
Lemon Hearts let out a terrified bleating sound, she trembled, but had nothing to say.
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I wonder what they ate... It obviously smelled bad, and it was a bar, and they were at Skyreach..
Are those the ration bars? Like, as a reminder? Hm..
8365807
Yeppo...the ones Rainbow described as tasting like.....sumtin....
Oh yes....a parent breaking point. I usually say to my two smaller clones that I will throw then through the window alongside with all the mess of toys and papers.
I live in the 2nd floor. They usually tidy up the mess immediatly. Yes, I, once, and just once, throw the toys through the windows.
And booth clones had what I SO fondly call "The Month of Hell" ! First month after birth everything was beautifull and perfect. Second month: 30 days of night cry due to colic...I barely slept during that month.
Good old nights, I tell you...
8365814 oh yea! Haha I honestly choked (mind out of the gutters) when I read that. Twas hilarious
Childhood and vomit seem to go together like...well, nothing should go well with vomit. But it happens.
Much later, it's even kinda funny.
8365919 Flushing usually follows well after vomiting?
Kudzu's Ponies have stronger social instincts than humans.
So with that in mind, i consider how much developmental damage a human toddler recieves when purposefully isolated during fits, and i wonder: how much more damage does it do to Kudzu's Ponies?
8365979
A Basket, a Blanket, and a Bundle of Bills.
Cue Rosalie Sorrels'
"Hostile Baby Rocking Song".
Developmental damage symptoms only become clear at about 5 to 10 years old; that story's time window only displayed direct damage symptoms of the foal's malnutrition/starvation plus constant isolation, and all while within the foal's first year alive.
There will be some long term stunting impact, but the hinted developmental damage might be healed over too well by the foal's father and adoptive mother to act as a proper case example.
8366016
I was referring to short term issues that were noticed as something of an example.
8365919
There is an Afrikaans saying that sometimes gets used when something is completely messed up/out of sorts or something along those lines. You should understand when I translate. Soos kots in n tuimeldroër. Translation: Like puke(or vomit) in a tumbledryer.
You know, I felt like I was going somewhere profound with this, like puke and tumbledryers going together, but they really don't. Carry on
8365814
8365904
I also suspect it was one of those special flavoured ration bars fron skyreach
8366055
I salute your courage to inject these thoughts into the conversation.
That's a real odd tradition...
And damnit, only kudz's stories would have me root for more Alicorns.
A worthy ceremony.
I get you now! :)
Still curious though; i want a feel for how horrified i should be when contemplating the long term mental and physical impact of parental negligence.
I mean, i can already use my empathy to imagine the future consequences a human child would experience as they grow into full sapience and how it would remanifest after they begin to lose plasticity through maturation, but i cant correctly apply the same empathy simulation for a Kudzu's Ponies foal because it has a different multiplier for its social instinct mechanisms.
(i use a script-blocking web browser on my phone to save battery life, but it also breaks the fimfic reply button script, thats why i never link back to your posts, sorry)
8366227
Esmeralda Verde will grow up being forever clingy and in need of constant attention due to what happened to her during her earliest days.
COOL!!! :O
Raising children never fails to sound like an absolutely horrifying experience.
I think we know who the Alicorn of Barfing will be...
8365814
What did they taste like?
8366272
Most really good thing are also horrifying in some way.
oh i wish your story didn't include vomitting in this chapter. i think i ate a bad leftover porkchop for lunch and i urrfed.
feel better now though
8366272
Yes...it is awfull and full of trouble.
Then your 5 years old daughter come to you with the biggest and more sincere smile you ever saw, jumps and hugs you..then she says "Daddy, I love you !"...all that while you´re watching your favorite cartoon/anime (thanks Netflix) from the chidlhood alongside with your 10 years old son, and he is loving every moment.
Awfull, I tell you. I can barely survive those days.
8366576
Read Skyreach. All will be revealed.
8366852
how far in do I have to read to find out about those things(as in, first 10 chapters? First 20?)? I can't afford to risk binge reading again all night. I got shit to do tommorrow... and every day this week.
If it's too far in, I'll just have to wait until I have time... or maybe someone can just tell me what they taste like.
8366876
They taste like something that cannot be said in a T rated comments section.
The bars are condensed protein. Hint hint.
8366882
Danke. That paints quite a... vivid picture.
8366887
Rainbow knew exactly what they tasted like on the first bite.
8366876
I don't know what everyone's being secretive about. The ration bars are just flavored like Cream of Sum Yun Gai.
8367153
OMG HOW LEWD.
8366576 They were.....ummmmm....spunky.......
(that's as direct as I'm sayin')
8367174
giambrocco.com/Otis%20Spunkmeyer.jpg
Just like mom used to make... with daddy's help in the kitchen.
All aboard the puke train
As a mother I feel Cloudy's speech on a spiritual level. Seriously if you've never had to remind yourself that you love your kids through gritted teeth while resisting the urge to duct tape them to a wall then you aren't a parent XD
I really felt Sumac's sadness in this one. I don't know why, exactly, but the part with the four eating the bar was profoundly sad. Life, huh...
8372846
Resist? What is that? Mine have learned it's a deterrent to bad behavior. "See silver, sit down" is the motto of the house.
8367177
I am a sad boy, I can't see the image. I will attempt to view it on the computer later