Apropos of the Sinners

by SpitFlame

Introduction – Chapter I – Bronze Pocket's First Wife

INTRODUCTION

A BRIEF FAMILY HISTORY

* * *

A dark and tragic event took place in Ponyville, which is still remembered and discussed among our good folk to this day. I will add that this event occurred many years before even the return of Nightmare Moon, that is, well before Twilight Sparkle and her friends rediscovered the Elements of Harmony, effectively saving Equestria from an eternal night, and so on and so forth. For now I will say that, to study these facts, I must describe them in their proper place.

It started with a family, a family worse than most. First, we must familiarize ourselves with Bronze Pocket, a posthumously famous earth pony and moderately successful landowner. This Bronze Pocket was married twice and had three children: the first two, his sons—Cluster Tale and Nova Steel—to his first wife, a unicorn mare, and his only daughter—Airglow Sky—to his second wife, a pegasus mare. I will note, briefly, perhaps for want of skill, that his three children were not terribly close to one another, and, in fact, none of them were ever raised by Bronze Pocket himself. We will get to the details shortly.

Both of Bronze Pocket’s marriages were a product of bad conduct; that is, he was the type of senseless stallion who was, on the surface, only capable of looking after his own worldly affairs, and, apparently, nothing much else; an abject and muddleheaded type, frequently gossiped about, regarded with disdain even by his friends, but up front treated with a sort of sarcastic reverence, a sort of respect too exaggerated to be sincere.

He grew up to a poor family in Ponyville. His father was a sponger living off the generosities of others. His mother went on to become widowed after her husband could not take his eyes off the roulette table: his compulsive gambling habits led to his irresponsible dealings and eventual murder. Bronze Pocket worked in a small farm before his coming of age, at the same time balancing his education, studied at a publicly funded university for only a year, dropped out, and travelled to Canterlot where he opened a small money-lending business. He made quite a name for himself, and, at the end of it all, landed back in Ponyville to continue his work and debaucheries.

In short, Bronze Pocket started from nothing; his business was small but concise; despite the wealth he managed to amass (proceeding his death, it was discovered that he had been hiding as much as half a million bits) he would often dine at other ponies’ tables, never lend any of his personal money to others, often devolve into repulsive poetry when drunk, and so on.

Bronze Pocket’s first wife, Stardust Gleam, belonged to an aristocratic family stationed in Canterlot, the Ballad Shines, well respected and distinguished. Many have attempted to explain, including myself, how a wealthy and intelligent mare such as Stardust Gleam could possibly have decided to marry such a depraved scoundrel, much to the bafflement of her family. Perhaps Stardust sprang from the “romantic” generation of spiteful and unconventional rebellion. That is to say, Stardust was certainly a strong-willed and independent mare, privileged with both beauty and strength, and, in fact, she may have even wanted to show her independence and overcome the echelons of class despotism, to commit deeds beyond proportion and convention, such as marrying a worthless "peasant" stallion like Bronze Pocket, despite his status as a sponger. This action was evidently an echo of foreign influences, and the affair gained a particular piquancy from elopement, which greatly pleased Stardust. Unfortunately, this all turned out to be nothing but a fit of passion, the turning point in the lives of such ponies where they commit themselves to a certain path by the mere virtue of its picturesqueness.

Stardust quickly discovered her burning contempt for Bronze Pocket. This feeling of intense contempt followed soon after the elopement, and the husband and wife led a wildly scattered life together, full of secrets kept from each other. The only thing on Bronze Pocket’s mind was Stardust’s dowry, the very one provided to her by her family. It is known that Stardust displayed far more generosity and high-mindedness to Bronze Pocket than he did to her, if only to rid herself of him as quickly as possible, while he nabbed all the cash from her every moment he got. Bronze Pocket did everything he could to transfer what his wife owed to his name by means of some appropriate deed, and he would have succeeded, merely because of the contempt and loathing she had for him; that is, his shameless extortions and entreaties aroused in his wife a sort of emotional exhaustion—she was too busy doing whatever she must to be rid of him. Of course, the Shines family stepped in and put an end to all the hogging. It was at this juncture, more or less, where tensions grew too insurmountable, and Stardust fled Bronze Pocket’s house, unofficially breaking off their marriage.

Because she wanted absolutely nothing to do with her husband, not a single reminder, she left her four-year-old and two-year-old sons—Cluster Tale and Nova Steel respectively—in his hooves. Unfortunately, Bronze Pocket completely abandoned these children, not because of malevolence or cruelty, but because he genuinely forgot about them. He threw himself into a life of debauchery and drunkenness, almost every day inviting young mares over or heading over to the nearest tavern for a gamble, tearfully going on rants about his “good-for-nothing” wife, diving into some absurdly personal details about their affairs together, painting himself as the victim, et cetera. Some of these details were so personal and inappropriate it would have embarrassed and disgraced any other stallion worth his salt, but not Bronze Pocket apparently. He was all too willing to act out as the buffoon, have others laugh at his expense, to flatter himself in his own degradations, to play the injured stallion, and to parade his sorrows with adornments.

Stardust Gleam could not find happiness, it turned out, not from any stallion she met, or even her own family, most of whom she outright avoided. Tormented by her time spent with Bronze Pocket, not capable of forgetting all that he had done to her—and prodded by her “romantic” inclinations—she threw herself off a high bank somewhat resembling a cliff, in the middle of a terrible storm, right into a deep and raging river. She perished decidedly by her own caprice. Perhaps if the chosen cliff had not been so picturesque, but merely a flat, dull bank, the suicide might not have taken place at all. But these fits of passion returned, and what better way to go than this. Realism may inflict tragedy in our lives, and the only cure is a little dose of poetic tragedy. When Bronze Pocket learned of his wife’s death he was so enraptured (and so very drunk) that he jumped up on a table and sang to the high heavens—and soon after was kicked out of the tavern.

Comments

[Mind Jack]

A very interesting story so far. I'm looking forward to reading more of it. (I don't have much time right now so that might be a bit.)
The characters as they're described are pretty interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.
It may have a small issue with purple prose, but honestly it seemed a bit more like a stylistic choice to me and wasn't very distracting in more than one or two places. I just thought I'd mention it in case you want to look it over yourself.

[flutterJackdash]

I didn't even finish the first chapter before I had to resist the urge to repeatedly click the "Like" button there. I'm captivated, so now not reading will be the challenge.