Chapter 43
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of what you and Copper shared together. The two of you did something amazing together. Something spectacular happened, something that might only happen once in a lifetime. I’d like for us to be friends, Sodalite. You and I have something in common. We’ve both shared an intimate moment with Copper, though in very different ways.”
Sodalite blushed and when she turned her head away, Buttermilk looked over at her parents, who were speaking to one another in hushed whispers. They seemed to be arguing, perhaps, or having a heated, animated discussion. Maybe not arguing, but good old fashioned marital bickering. As for Copper himself, he was trying to console Esmeralda, who was in a terrible mood. A thousand tantrums lurked within the filly’s stormy eyes and no known force—not even a father’s gentle love—could contain them.
“Is he the one?” Sodalite asked while still turned away.
“He is,” Buttermilk replied without hesitation. “He’s not perfect, but I find his flaws endearing. Look at him. Just look at him trying to comfort poor Esmeralda.”
Sodalite started to say something, but instead, nodded in silence.
“I can help you relocate,” Buttermilk said to her new friend. “Assistance is hard to come by, and there isn’t much to go around, but I am pretty sure I can wrangle up something. I’m starting to think that being a social worker means being a miracle worker. Making something from nothing. I can see my whole life stretching out before me, and there are moments when I feel some doubt.”
“Do you think you’ve made it harder on yourself by getting involved with Copper?” Sodalite asked in a low voice.
“Maybe.” Buttermilk shrugged. “Possibly.” She shrugged again for a second time. “Probably.” Taking a deep breath, she started to shrug once more; her withers rose, her back stiffened, but then she went limp with a heavy sigh. “What good are dreams when there is nopony to share them with? There is meaning in a shared struggle. Copper is waking up to his potential. His eyes are open now and I’m pretty sure that he’s starting to understand just how much he has to offer the world. My mother, she raised me to work. If necessary, I’ll lift both myself and Copper up so we realise our potential… together.”
“I hope I find love like that.” Sodalite looked Buttermilk in the eye, her lips moved, but whatever words she had remained unspoken.
“You’re worried about your son getting in the way.”
“How’d you know?” Sodalite’s eyes were now wounded and darted about, unable or unwilling to meet Buttermilk’s gaze.
“Call it a hunch, I guess. Or maybe because I have some understanding of how the world is.” Buttermilk flashed a smile that she hoped was reassuring. “I got involved with Copper because of Esmeralda. Don’t give up hope. The right one might come along—”
“It’s different when a mare has a foal.” Sodalite’s eyes dropped down to the grass which she sat on. “So many stallions want foals that are theirs. I’m so worried. I feel like there is so much I have to protect my son from. Sometimes, I’m tempted by these proposals I’ve received. It shames me to admit it. Being as young as I am, I know exactly what they want from me and they’re willing to tolerate my son to get it. I don’t know if I’m willing to whore myself out in return for so much uncertainty.”
“You can’t assume the worst of everypony,” Buttermilk said, and she took a moment to determine the truth of her own words. “There is some truth in what you say though. The stallions around here, I’d grudgingly admit that most of them probably want to take advantage of you and your situation. As an extra added bonus, they’ll get bragging rights about how they took in your son and raised him as their own. That’s just the sort of thing I’d expect from Dales Delta.”
Unsettled by her own words, Buttermilk felt her stomach shrivel into a knot.
“What insidious power does this place have, that I shame myself for speaking bad about it?” Buttermilk shook her head from side to side, and raised her wings as if they could somehow ward off the unknown.
“You’re not like the other mares around here, if you don’t mind me saying. You’re smart. And not in the way that is acceptable. Smart at business is one thing…” Sodalite’s words transitioned into a weary groan.
“I left for a reason,” Buttermilk replied, whispering these words with the hopes that her parents would not hear them. Her ears pricked as she tried to make out what her parents were saying, but she failed to make out any relevant details.
This was the place where she was born and raised. Buttermilk had discovered herself here. Perhaps because of how the ponies here happened to be. She stood out. As her father had once said, she stood out like a star in the night sky, a brilliant, beautiful light. That she felt so guilty for speaking ill of this place left her shaken, unsettled, and filled with questions. Perhaps a good chat with Twilight Velvet was in order. If something was broken, Twilight Velvet could sort it out.
Of course, there was the distinct possibility that nothing was broken, and this was normal. What did she know, anyhow? She was just a naive farm filly with a butterchurn cutie mark. How could she possibly understand the complex ways of the world? With a shudder, she shoved the spectre of Mister Blancmange from her thoughts and focused all of her attention on Copper.
She had a Copper to save and couldn’t do so with all this negativity.
“I don’t want to go…”
“What?” Buttermilk, taken off-guard by what had just been said, leaned in close to Sodalite and looked her new friend in the eye.
“I don’t want to go.” Repeating herself, the sad earth pony shook her head from side to side, clearly despondent. “I love this place. Even with all of the problems. I love the sights, and the smells, and I love the way the tides come in and out. I don’t want to leave. But I feel that I am being forced to abandon everything I love because nopony will give me a chance. I’m an earth pony. This land is a part of me. I don’t expect you to understand. I’d stay if I could. But I feel like I have no choice. Ponies keep taking my choices away from me and now it feels like I have to run away.”
Whatever words Buttermilk had were caught in her throat.
“When ponies like you and I leave, it means that nothing ever changes here. Everything stagnates. This place is like a soured tidal pool. It needs fresh water. But I can’t even take care of myself or my son, so I am leaving. That’s the worst part of being poor. You have no chance to make things better. All your time is spent just surviving.”
Buttermilk thought of Copper; he was surviving by trying to change the world. She felt good and bad at the same time, proud of Copper, and sympathetic to Sodalite’s plight. In some ways, Copper was pretty lucky, but he was also having a hard go at it. A real hard go. He was hitching his wagon to an uncertain future. And for what? For Esmeralda. Buttermilk’s cheeks grew warm, knowing that Copper had other reasons that motivated him.
She motivated him.
It felt good, too.
Really, it felt wonderful.
They had motivated and it was everything she hoped that it would be.
It was the best sort of motivation, honestly.
There was something about knowing that she was worth it that left her feeling giddy and it made her want to fly heart-shaped loop-the-loops. But right now, that would be inappropriate. Taking a deep breath, she settled her mind and wished that she had some Celestial Glory tea. Now was not the time to be a giddy-girly, now was the time to help her friend.
She just didn’t know how.
“Miss Sodalite…”
The sound of her mother’s voice yanked Buttermilk from her distracted state.
“Just Sodalite. Or Soda.”
“Right.” Butter Fudge stood up, took a few steps to be closer, and was followed by her husband. “Oi, here goes. Sodalite, Midgy and I, we’ve been talking. Tell me, what do you know about cheese? About dairy products in general?”
Sodalite’s head tilted off to one side, which caused both of her ears to go leaning over. “Not much. Why?”
“Look, hear me out, okay? I can’t afford to pay you very much. Most of what I make is already earmarked and I do a lot of bartering. What I can do is give you room and board. At no cost. As in, I will not charge you rent or the cost of your meals. I’ll even pay for things you and your son might need, as I have several lines of credit. I have a spare room and my workload is about to increase substantially. I’ll need a helper.”
Utterly gobsmacked, Buttermilk stared at her mother, unable to respond in any way, shape, or form.
“Why do this?” Sodalite asked.
“Because… I…” Butter Fudge faltered, and as a pleading expression fell over her face, her gaze fell upon her daughter. “Sometimes a mother makes mistakes. We spend all those years thinking we know best. That we know what’s best. That’s not always the case. If you stay here with us, you’ll have a chance to reconnect with your mother. Might take a while. Midgy and I, we’d like a chance to do right.”
Turning her head, Sodalite cast a sidelong glance at Buttermilk. Meanwhile, Buttermilk was looking at her mother, Butter Fudge. Mighty Midge smiled and nodded at Sodalite while Copperquick—oblivious to the drama at hoof—rocked his daughter from side to side to avoid what was sure to be quite a squall.
Sodalite averted her eyes. “I don’t know—”
“You won’t need to look for a foalsitter for your son.” Butter Fudge, a big mare, drew in a deep breath, a long, slow process that took a while. It came out in a heavy, titanic snort, a sound that shook the earth. “I’m not like my daughter. She’s a better mare than me, which, as her mother, is everything that I’ve hoped for. I can’t even pretend to understand her, but I can be inspired by her. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to go about doing it. But this is something I know I can do. If you give me a chance, I can make this right. If I can’t make this right, then maybe I can still make this better, somehow.”
Buttermilk could feel her mother’s sincerity, her eagerness, and was touched. Turning to her friend, she said, “You were just saying about how change begins here, at home. This is your chance to stay. Isn’t that what you wanted? I know it isn’t ideal, but it’s pretty good. Plus, if you stay with my parents, it will be easier for you and I to stay in touch.”
Reaching up, Sodalite began rubbing the base of her skull with her hoof, making tight little circles while she thought about everything that had just been said. Meanwhile, a different sort of tension crept up Buttermilk’s spine. She knew, she understood what her mother was doing. Inviting Sodalite to come and stay was the ultimate test of her father’s devotion, and her mother was making a leap of faith. This was appreciated by Buttermilk, and she wanted to kiss her mother and give her extra-squeezy Beezy hugs.
This was a chance for change.
A much-needed opportunity for change in the community.
Butter Fudge was big enough, and stubborn enough to shrug off whatever backlash came from this. And there would be backlash. Ponies would talk. There would be gossip. Buttermilk realised and knew that horrible things would be said about her Daddums and her Moomy. Awful things. Ponies would insinuate and make assumptions. When she glanced at her mother, Buttermilk knew that her Moomy had to know what she was getting into, and love swelled in her pegasus heart.
“I’d like to stay,” Sodalite confessed. “More than you know. I’m not ready to give up on my mom. Not yet. I’d like to sleep on it, but my answer is, tentatively, yes.”
“We have a guest room, and there is Beezy’s old room.” Mighty Midge leaned himself up against Butter Fudge and smiled. “It’ll be nice to have some life in the house again. Hasn’t been the same since Beezy left. With her coming back, and little Esmeralda, it’s been a reminder of just how quiet and empty the house is. I don’t like it. Really, I don’t like it at all. We have all this space for living, and living implies life. Emptiness goes against the whole purpose of having a big house. It’s wasteful, not using that space. I can’t abide wastefulness.
Buttermilk was in such a fitful state that she was almost chewing on her hooves.
“Excuse me,” a pegasus pony said as he approached. “I do not mean to intrude. My name in Stingy Rich, and I’m a bank agent. I’m here to provide payment. I’ll need some signatures.”
Buttermilk knew this pony, but hardly recognised him. Once, a very long time ago, he had asked her to accompany him to an ice cream social. Well, he didn’t really ask, no. He had told her when they would be leaving and that was that. Being an obstinate cuss, she had stood him up. After the fact, horrible things had been said about her and she had been teased mercilessly in school.
She thought about punching his lights out, for old times’ sake.
Just a simple straight-leg haymaker, right to the kisser.
Instead, she smiled, and was as pleasant as possible. Stingy acted as though he didn’t even recognise her, the cad. An uppercut to the chin might help jog his memory. From the corner of her eye, she caught her mother looking right at her, a silent ‘no’ in her eyes. She knew. Of course she knew. It was her business to know. Buttermilk wondered if one day she would know when Esmeralda was up to no good.
Stingy was a horrible, terrible, awful, dirty, yellow-bellied, cowardly heap of dung, a feast for flies.
Still smiling, Buttermilk waved at him with her wing. “Hello, Stingy,” she said, as pleasantly as possible.
“Mister Rich, if you please. No time to catch up on days gone by, I’m here on business.”
He was so haughty! The unspoken ‘no’ still lurked in Butter Fudge’s eyes. Stingy had gone through a phase where he wore a monocle. To school. And if anypony did so much as giggle about it, the detentions were assigned hard and fast. Stingy had made his earth pony classmates do his assignments and his homework, because that was the way of things. The natural order. All of Buttermilk’s foalhood rage still felt pretty fresh for having been in storage this long.
Buttermilk’s glasses began to fog over just a bit.
With one wing, he smartly pulled a portfolio from his saddlebag, flipped it open, and held it out. “Mister Quick, sign here, if you please. Or just scribble an X on the line if you are incapable of writing your own name.”
Oh no! Did he just suggest that Copper was an illiterate hick? Behind her flawless smile, Buttermilk’s teeth ground together, and the only outward evidence of her distress was the clenching of her jaw muscles. Buttermilk was keenly aware of her mother’s heavy stare, and she could feel her father’s eyes on her as well. The plucky little pegasus did her best to appear placid.
Some ponies just had far too many teeth, more than they needed, more than they deserved, and Buttermilk thought of amateur dentistry.
Copperquick took the proffered pen, a sad, dreadful looking thing, and Buttermilk saw him look Stingy right in the eye. Stingy looked away, and Buttermilk, all she could focus on was the sorry state of the horrid pen. Of course, Stingy wouldn’t keep a nice pen for earth ponies to sign with. Her glasses fogged over so much that it became difficult to see.
With a few deft movements, Copperquick signed his name. Stingy opened his portfolio, to the back this time, and with a smirking sneer, pulled out a check, already signed and stamped. Buttermilk’s quick, observant gaze inspected it for the brief moment she saw it, and much to her relief, she saw no discernable errors.
“My college professors tell me that I have excellent, flowing script,” Copperquick said while holding the pen in the corner of his mouth.
“Oh, quite,” Stingy replied with more obvious distaste than Buttermilk believed equinely possible. “Here you go. One-thousand bits.”
Before Copperquick could react, Mighty Midge snatched the check from Stingy’s wing and with a few quick gestures, the valuable bit of paper vanished from view, almost like magic. Buttermilk was relieved that her father had the check. Sitting on the grass, Esmeralda let out a loud, ear-pricking screech, flopped over onto her back, kicked her legs around, and then began to bawl. Butter Fudge, with one eye still on Buttermilk, went over to soothe the distressed filly.
The portfolio was flipped around—Stingy managed to do it without looking—and opened to another place. Holding it out, he said, “Sodalite. Spare me your pleasantries. Sign here.”
In a moment common and shared by earth ponies everywhere, Copperquick passed Sodalite the pen. Buttermilk was too flustered to even suffer a momentary twinge of jealousy when their snoots touched. Slobber had been swapped and Buttermilk failed to react, to notice. Trembling with anticipation, Buttermilk watched and waited for Stingy to cross the line.
Sodalite signed her name, moving slowly, deliberately, each motion a self-conscious one. The scratching of the pen against the bank ledger’s paper made Buttermilk’s ears quiver. As each letter was scratched out, Buttermilk thought of Mister Blancmange and somehow, she felt even worse. She was reaching some unknown point of critical stress, and she knew it.
“Sodalite, a bit of advice if I may?”
Did these two know one another? How? Why? The tension in Buttermilk’s muscles grew unbearable. Never had the need for violence been this strong. She wanted to feel hot blood on her frogs. No, she needed to feel it. Every nerve in her pegasus body sang with the need for release. Bloody combat. The ancient pegasus way. Her father had pulled her aside one day, and far, far away from her mother’s ears, they had The Talk.
Saying nothing, Sodalite stood there, unmoving, the pen held in her lips.
“Make better choices. Your past suggests that you won’t, though. How tragic that—”
“Oi, Stingy, you bedwetting plonker, why don’t you have a good and proper fuck off? Yer a tragic example of what happens when a mother teat-feeds for too long.”
“I beg your pardon.” Stingy raised his head, his body posture became perfect, and his ears formed well-bred angles away from his skull. “Why, I—”
“Yer mother should have kicked you away, but that sweet, sweet suckling was the only attention she had, ‘cause yer father was busy shagging his whore secretaries. Not a fucking wonder, really, as your mother is a shrill shrew of a mare, a real sodding cunt. Ever wonder why you don’t have any brothers or sisters, Stingy?”
The pen fell to the grass as Sodalite’s mouth hung open.
“Word has it though, that you do have brothers and sisters. Half-ones. Going to be quite a day here in Dales Delta when they read your father’s last will and testament.” Butter Fudge grinned, a predatory, wolfish grin, and her eyes had a nightmarish gleam. “Now be good colt and give Sodalite her check. After that, you can go home and cry to yer mama. That is, if you can stomach her voice.”
“Mrs. Oddbody, I should warn you—”
“You should what, Stingy? It’s a small town, Stingy. We only keep secrets as a sort of half-assed effort to remain polite to one another. That’s how we do things. We keep so many secrets and we all have so much dirt on one another. It’s the only thing that keeps us nice. Well, I’m done being nice. I’ve had it up to here with this place.” Butter Fudge pointed at some non-existent spot over her head.
“We’re so bloody awful that we drove my daughter away. You, in particular, had a hoof in some of that nastiness. She flew away, and I’m stuck here, in this awful place, constantly paranoid about what everypony thinks of me and every action I do. I know every dirty secret, I listen to every horrendous line of gossip, and I know exactly what is going on behind every closed door. For some reason, unknown to myself, I play along and I do my best to fit in, and I’m polite, and I do my part to be a good mare for the community. Well, I’m tired of being nice. I’m sick of being afraid. I’m so skittish about causing a scene or being the target of gossip that it has actually held me back from doing right. Doing the right thing. I’m done being afraid. I’m causing a scene right now and it feels great. This is me, from here on out. Now give Sodalite her check and fly away, or I’ll give Buttermilk the go-ahead to beat your sorry, prissy, pompous little ass.”
“Now you just wait a—”
“Fifty bits on the featherweight,” Mighty Midge said, cutting Stingy off.
Stingy Rich’s well-maintained composure shattered. With trembling wings, he fumbled through his portfolio, somehow managed to fish out the check, but failed to pass it to Sodalite. It fluttered to the ground as the now-panicked pegasus stuffed his portfolio into his saddlebags, and then, with no thought of the pen still on the ground, Stingy took wing.
He departed with truly remarkable speed.
Sodalite—who put her hoof down upon her check to keep it from flying away, turned to Butter Fudge and said, “I’ll need a few days to pack up my stuff. I’ll probably need some help moving. I can report for work in about a week.”
“That sounds fine,” Butter Fudge replied. “I’ll help you move.”
Buttermilk, stunned, stared at her mother in utter astonishment. In one spectacular moment, her mother had just threatened to burn down every bridge in Dales Delta. It was only a start, but what a start it was. Overcome with love and profound affection, Buttermilk flew at her mother, full force, and collided with her broad, stocky neck. She threw everything she had into squeezing, as if squeezing was the only conceivable way to express her gratitude, her appreciation, and her love.
“Say, that felt pretty good,” Butter Fudge muttered. She was an immovable stone against her daughter’s aggressive affections. “My name is probably mud now.”
“Let’s go home.” Mighty Midge looked up at his wife and daughter, smiled, and gave Sodalite a nod. “See you soon, Miss.”
Going home sounded like the best thing in the whole wide world.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- kudzuhaiku · 13k words · 205 5 · 2.1k views
- kudzuhaiku · 48k words · 206 14 · 1.8k views
- kudzuhaiku · 6.4k words · 178 18 · 2k views
- kudzuhaiku · 7.8k words · 166 6 · 1.6k views
- kudzuhaiku · 9.9k words · 174 8 · 1.6k views
- kudzuhaiku · 37k words · 203 7 · 2.2k views
- kudzuhaiku · 183k words · 205 6 · 1.7k views
- kudzuhaiku · 5.9k words · 207 9 · 2.6k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.175 seconds
Total duration
1,040 users online
233,554 hits today, 1,872,792 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.®
I was waiting to see who was unleashing that tirade. And then that sweet, sweet fudge.
EVER so pleased.
I feel Proud of a character in a story for the beautiful and just tirade that happened. This is why I Adore your stories and the world and character building that happens in them.
Damn Butter Fudge, just damn.
I like this solution. There may come a point where Sodalite and Copper have to run again for the good of Equestria, and this keeps them tertiarily connected.
Do it!
Sting him like a bee, Buttermilk!
Wow, that works as a nice alternative. Big solid earth ponies punch hard, even just verbally.
I'd say that couldn't have gone any better! Thanks, mom!
Ah that was satisfying.
Esmerelda just learned a LOT of new words from her Grandmoomy!
Yes, directory assistance? Can I get list of burn wards in Equestria? We have an urgent case that needs attending.
Clears throat.
SAVAGE
Boo! More bloody combat! Give him the ol’ what-for.
Damn! What an ENDING to this chapter! That was just an EPIC BEAT DOWN!! <3
Seriously, totally great when someone gets a physical or verbal beat down like this who is a smarmy self-righteous jackass
now THAT is growth, and that level of burn could suture every nasty little tumor in the whole community. Vicious *applauds moomy*
On top of everything else it's kinda sad to realize that Filthy Rich is from one of the better branches of the family tree.
a awesome story i love this.
i am hopping when you get your two huge stroy's closed that you come back to this as i really want to see Butter Fudge burn the shit out of this town.