A Pony Displaced: Homeward

by NoLongerSober

Chapter 11 - Destiny's Mark (Part 4)

“How about we get mah cousin’s story next?” Apple Bloom asked, smiling up at the larger mare in anticipation; Winter Gem smiled back, softly.

“Yeah, get the really boring one out of the way first!” Sweetie Belle thrust a hoof into the air victoriously. “That way the last ones will seem cooler.”

“Right on!” Scootaloo thrust her hoof up in cheer as well.

Winter Gem mumbled something to herself about brats and a particularly eye-opening paddling but otherwise just took a deep breath and began the tale of her cutie mark as all the others had.

“Growing up, we Apples weren’t farmers. Not like we are today, anyways. Each Apple household kept a small orchard of some variety, most usually apples, for the sole purpose of keeping the family fed. According to Miss Yearling, my family lived in a place that is now known as Dodge Junction…”

***

“I heard thou!” Winter Gem called back into the house as her small form cut through the frosty morning air and made her way around the edge of the orchards fence to the lone gate. “I shall harvest the accursed apples…” She approached the closest of the apple trees composing the family orchard and then turned and bucked the tree with a skill earned from countless mornings of repeating the exact same action, drawing an orchard-wide crack as the apples cascaded to the ground. “I wager Cousin Braeburn never had to spend his mornings kicking trees…” The small, snow-white filly continued to talk to herself as she gathered the apples up and put them in the buckets that had been laid at the base of the tree a day prior.

“Actually, Braeburn did this every morning.”

The filly jumped, having not heard the much larger stallion approach.

From behind his daughter, the stallion smiled down at her then shared a brief glance with his wife, unspoken words seeming to pass between the pair. “Were he not sick, I have no doubt he would be out here aiding you.”

Winter Gem mumbled something to herself and moved to the next tree in the row and repeated the exercise.

“According to thy cousin,” the older mare picked up after her husband when he shifted to the second row of trees and set about his own morning harvest. “It was great practice for when he would inevitably join the army. He also understood the importance of the orchard and just what exactly it meant to the family.”

Her father finished his first tree and shifted his banana-yellow mane from his eyes where it so often seemed to fall. “He oft pretended he was kicking a griffin. He said he liked to imagine it was a griffin whose neck he was snapping with each buck.” He punctuated his statement with a sharp crack against the base of a tree.

Winter Gem delivered a particularly vicious buck to an unfortunate tree as her own mind conjured up the images being mentioned.

Snow Apple smiled at her daughter through her frosty mane, already seeing the words having an effect on the youngest Apple’s harvesting.

Winter Banana stopped bucking and stood next to his wife, watching Winter Gem. “It may seem like simple farming, but it will serve you well.” He continued to preach, voice growing more firm to help emphasize his words. “In addition to ensuring thy family is well-fed, it will also help to build the strength in thy legs to serve thee throughout thy life.”

“Just imagine each trunk as the chest of a griffin.” Snow Apple encouraged with just as much zeal as her husband went for another tree. “Feel their lungs collapse beneath thy hooves!”

“Imagine the apples are foals that the griffins have dropped from the sky!” Her father suddenly shouted as he bucked a tree and proceeded to catch the apples as they cascaded to the ground. “Quickly, catch them with the bucket before their bones break upon the ground!”

Winter Gem was only vaguely aware of her parents talking to her, instead conjuring up more macabre images in her mind as she went about her morning chores, all but sprinting doggedly from tree to tree, bucking as hard as her little legs would allow and just as quickly trying to catch as many apples as she could before they hit the ground, her mind already likening each missed apple to what her father described next.

“Each apple that falls upon the ground is a foal that has now suffered a horrific death!” Her father encouraged. “Do not fail them, Gem! They depend upon thee!”

Winter Gem was panting and sweat was beginning to drip from her mane, but she doggedly continued about her task, only seeming to snap back to reality when she had reached the end of the row where she nearly collapsed on the ground, tiny muscles spasming with exertion as she desperately tried to catch her breath.

“Thy cousin Braeburn did this every morning without fail until the day he left for basic and I have no doubt were he not in bed sick, that he would be here with you.” Snow Apple smiled widely at her daughter and she crouched down and rested a hoof on her withers, stroking her daughter in an effort to comfort the exhausted filly. “And like you, he received his cutie mark during a harvest one morning.”

It took Winter Gem a moment to process the words, tired as she was, and snap her head around to spot the bright red apple on her flank. On the one hoof, she was ecstatic that she’d received her cutie mark, but on the other, it was an apple.

Giving her flank a long hard stare, Winter Gem pondered for a moment, then smiled brightly. She was okay with this.

***

“We followed it up with a round of hard ciders.” Winter Gem concluded. “The first I’d had, rather similar to Captain Barrier receiving wine, only not as… well, cider is a much better drink.” She grinned at her captain with an almost uncharacteristic smile, which he returned gently.

“Well,” Apple Bloom managed after all of the fillies and adults stopped to process the story. “At least it’s a tiny bit better than mah sister’s. Less schmaltzy at least.”

“Eh,” Scootaloo chimed in, “at least it was better than Green Bean and Cutlery Colt.” Her response earned her a glare from the two stallions.

“Your parents were admirable ponies.” Barrier patted Winter Gem on the shoulder with a smile. “While out of sorts these days, they were incredibly intelligent.”

Winter Gem nodded, more filled with thoughts of her lost parents and her captain’s apparent opinions on them than those of the fillies who had requested her story.
“So,” Barrier drew the children’s attention. “Your options remaining are Hat Trick and Swiftsword. Who would you like to hear next?”

“Uh,” They all seemed caught off guard for whatever reason.

“Hat Trick!” Scootaloo stated. “Of the two left, Swiftsword’s is probably the coolest,” Scootaloo glanced at the powder-blue mare’s flank. “so let’s get the lame one out of the way.”

“Here here!” Sweetie Belle agreed with a wide grin.

“Very well.” Hat Trick swept his hooves wide with a flair that only a practiced prestidigitator could put forth.

“Allow me to regale you with the tale of how I ascended to adulthood!” From seemingly out of nowhere, the pegasus threw a pellet to the ground that erupted in smoke.

***

Hat Trick had gathered a surprisingly substantial crowd for a foal as young as he, especially since he was only standing on a pair of crates with a row of four large, worn top hats behind him. Having previously warmed up the audience with card tricks and a shell game with a raccoon, the time for the finale had at last come. “Gather round, ponies! For I shall now perform my grand finale!” He crowed to the crowd with an enticing tone that few ponies could hope to match.

“I will make myself disappear!” The pegasus chuckled at the blatant crows of disbelief.

“Yer’ full o’shit, kid!” A drunken pony shouted.

“Oh?” Hat Trick waved one of the giant top hats with an ostentatious wave. “Am I?” Hat Trick baited. “Am I really?”

He pulled the horribly designed hat over his muzzle… followed by the entirety of his body, much to the confusion of the stallion that had called him out.

“Wha-” The stallion tried to respond to the countless gazes that had fixated upon the seemingly empty hat. The stallion shouldered his way to the front of the crowd before rearing onto his hind legs and tilting the hat that the foal had disappeared into, revealing to the crowd and itself that it was well and truly empty.

“Not that one.” Hat Trick’s head popped out of under one of the other hats. “This one.” He disappeared into it, causing the stallion to swear and climb bodily onto the crates where he quickly bowled over the second hat revealing that it too was empty.

“Nope.” The foal crowed from the third hat he’d brought with him. “A for effort though.” Hat Trick disappeared once more into that hat before the stallion could reach it.

The stallion, a beige earth pony, huffed and kicked the hat over revealing that like the others, it was empty.

“Over here, one that smells of elderberries!” Hat Trick popped out of the fourth and final hat and taunted the stallion before vanishing again. Like the others, this one was swiftly kicked over and revealed to be empty.

“But…” A mare in the crowd began. “Where did he go? He cou-” She yelped and backpedaled, the top of her head started to feel heavier as her own hat began to seemingly move on its own. As if by magic, a hoof shot out of it.

“Ta-da!” Hat Trick crowed triumphantly as he freed himself from the mare’s hat and stood triumphantly on her head.

The stallion hopped off of the crates and started back in the crowd only for a mauve unicorn to cut in front of him and shoot back a hard, icy-blue glare almost seeming to dare him. When nothing happened, he turned back to the performer. “And now, for his next trick, my son will make his cutie mark appear!”

Hat Trick grinned up at his father before the words seemed to register and he snapped his gaze around. He then gave a wide smile before he bowed on top of the mare’s head.

***

“Well,” Scootaloo was the first to speak up as Hat Trick’s story came to a close. “A big improvement over the last few at least.”

“Ooh, ooh!” Sweetie Belle hopped in place until Hat Trick met her eyes. “Could you pull a trick on me?”

“Certainly,” Hat Trick grinned widely and flicked his hoof, a hat eerily similar to those on his cutie mark seeming to wink into existence.

Sweetie Belle giggled as Hat Trick dropped the hat onto her, the small filly vanishing into its depths.

Everypony waited for several long seconds, after which Hat Trick lifted the hat and revealed that it was in fact empty.

Almost immediately afterwards, the breadbox on the counter began to shift, leading to Swiftsword snagging it in her magic and prying it open, revealing a slightly smooshed and grinning Sweetie Belle.

The others applauded while Barrier rubbed his forehead in consternation, having seen the bread squashed tightly against the back of the breadbox.

I’d just bought that. Clearing his throat, he addressed the three foals once more. “Alright, are you three ready for your last story?”

“Well…” Apple Bloom hesitated for a moment. “Could we get somethin’ tah eat? It’s been hours since we had those pancakes o’ yours.”

Barrier glanced at the clock and winced. A quarter to three already? Had they really spent that long telling stories? “Well, I don’t really know how to make anything beyond pancakes and Yearling isn’t here, so how about we all go out for lunch? There’s a fairly nice buffet about three blocks from here.”

With a multitude of affirmatives, the door was opened and they descended upon the city…

For a reason he couldn’t quite place, the older stallion felt bad for whoever was working the buffet on this particular day.

Author's Note:

Alticron: Hey there, everyone. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Only one more chapter in the Destiny's Mark arc, and then something big happens.

This chapter's pic is of Winter Gem and Hat Trick's parents.

Until next time, dear readers. Have a good time.

Comments

[HolyCross9]

Holy cow! Did Hat Trick just reference Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Because one of the French knights from that film actually taunted someone with "...and your father smelled of elderberries!"

[Alticron]

8765697
Actually, he was just implying the guy was a drunk since elderberries were often used to make wine in olden times.

[HolyCross9]

8765806
Fair enough. But just so you'll know, Monty Python was where first time I heard the term "elderberries" used.

[A.P.O.N.I.]

I'm somewhat surprised that Winter Banana had an apple-based cutie mark. With that name, I thought he'd married into the family.

[Alticron]

8767636
You're not the first, and it's understandable. But it should be noted that like winter gems, winter bananas are a type of apple.

[redmar]

Another nice chapter and I'm not surprised that they chose to hear Swiftsword's story last.

[Midknight Defender]

Well, I don’t really know how to make anything beyond pancakes and Yearling isn’t here

Such a shame. They really need to hear Yearling's story.