• Published 22nd Mar 2018
  • 1,129 Views, 741 Comments

Pound and Pumpkin Tales 2 - Never2muchpinkie



The continuing adventures of the now seven years old Pound and Pumpkin

  • ...
2
 741
 1,129

PreviousChapters Next
8-1: Pep talk

Mayhem was pacing around the room, barely able to sit still. Today was the big day. Twilight was due to arrive in a few minutes, and he couldn’t wait to start his new adventure.

Fluttershy tried to calm him down, but she knew it was futile. He had been a bit subdued lately, and she knew he was probably eager to use his magic again, especially when it was for a good cause.

When he heard the knock on the door he immediately poofed over and opened it, his face lighting up as he saw the alicorn. He floated up and gave her a hug. “Hi, Twilight!”

Twilight hugged him back. “Hello, yourself. It’s good to see you again.”

“Is everything ready?”

“It is, indeed. They’re all waiting for you.”

Mayhem did some loop-de-loops around the room, laughing in excitement.

Twilight chuckled, letting him burn off some steam before calling him back. “Come on now. Go say goodbye to Fluttershy and let’s get going.”

Mayhem stopped his antics, flying to Fluttershy and hugging her too. “Goodbye, Mommy. I’ll see you later.”

“Goodbye, Mayhem. Behave yourself, okay?”

He nodded. “I will.”

With that the two of them headed for the castle. Mayhem rode on Twilights back just like Spike usually did.

“Today’s the big day,” he said happily.

“Indeed it is. Are you excited?”

He nodded hard. “I’m super excited! I can’t wait to meet all the little kids.

“So are they ready for me?”

“Not quite. All I told the parents was that I was conducting a friendship exercise and needed some interested children. They don’t know about you yet.

“I decided to start with just four. I don’t want you to get overwhelmed. Let’s just take things slow.”

Mayhem gave a little salute. “You got it!”

Twilight giggled.

The draconequus leaned forward, holding her around the neck. “Twilight, you’re good friends with Mommy, right?”

“I should hope so.”

“She probably trusts you with her life.”

“As I trust her with mine.”

“If she trusts you that much then I know I can trust you as much as her and my friends.”

“Thank you.” She felt his arms tense a bit around her neck, and turned to see an uncertain look on his face. All his former excitement and cheer had vanished. “Is something wrong?”

“Twilight… I… I don’t ever want to go back to that bad Mayhem I was before. S-so I’m… I’m really counting on you to keep me in line. Whatever it is you tell me to do I’ll listen. I trust that you won’t steer me wrong.”

“I’m glad to see you’re taking things seriously, but I don’t think there’s any need to worry.”

“But I’m scared! I don’t know what’s going to happen when I start playing. I might do something bad. That’s why I need you to be there for me.

“Please! I need to hear it!” A tear came down his eye.

Twilight could see his past was getting to him. Once more she saw his childish mentality. She thought he just needed some reassurance, but not for his own actions.

She lifted Mayhem up in her magic so he was floating in front of her, and gave him a bow. “Mayhem, by my honor as a princess of Equestria, I promise that I will monitor your actions closely, and help to stop you from making mistakes.” Standing up she continued, “I don’t want to see this day go wrong either.”

All the worry seemed to drain out of the little draconequus. He was all smiles again. “Thank you, Twilight!” He gave her a big hug. “I love you!”

Twilight looked down at him warmly, hugging him back. “You're welcome, Mayhem. I love you, too.”

When she released him he floated back onto her back. “Okay! Let’s GO!”

Twilight began to trot, happy to see that Mayhem was cheerful again.

They arrived at the castle a few minutes later, and after walking down a hallway she stopped before a certain door.

She set Mayhem down on the floor. “Okay, Mayhem. I want you to wait here for a minute. I just want to prepare them for you.”

Twilight got a thoughtful look on her face. “Mayhem, I remember how things went when you first met Pound and Pumpkin’s friends, and especially Flurry. I’ll explain to them that you’re going to look different than what they expect, but some of them might still react like Flurry did. I just hope you’re ready for that.”

Mayhem smiled. “No worries. Like you said, I just have to show them that I’m more than my appearance.”

Twilight mussed up his hair a bit. “That’s what I like to hear.”

She opened the door to a modest room with a group of children sitting on chairs.

“Hello again, everyone!” she said brightly.

“Hello, Princess Twilight!” they all responded.

“I’m not acting as a princess today, so you don’t have to address me by title if you don’t want to.”

A brown earth pony colt raised his hoof. “But you said this was a friendship exercise, right?”

She nodded. “That’s correct, but I’m not the one in charge of this. I just gathered you all here for the sake of another.

“Now, before I bring him in here I have to warn you that his appearance might be a bit alarming to some of you.”

“Does he have a really mean face?” asked a purple unicorn filly.

She shook her head. “Not at all. He’s just not a pony.”

“Is it a griffon?”

“Is it the dragon?” an orange pegasus colt asked.

“No. It’s not a griffon or Spike. In fact, it’s a species you’ve probably never heard of. He’s called a draconequus.”

“That sounds hard to pronounce.”

“Well, that’s okay. His species name might be a little long, but you can just address him by his name.

“Anyway, his is a rare species. In fact, there might only be two in the whole world.”

“Why so few?” asked the brown colt.

“Doesn’t that mean his species is going to die out?” asked the filly.

“Good questions!” said Twilight. “The thing about a draconequus is that they don’t need to worry about lifespans like us ponies. Just like Princess Celestia and Princess Luna they are ageless beings. He is over a thousand years old.”

“OOOO,” said a green earth pony filly.

“A draconequus is a being that is a mix of several different creatures. Both his arms and legs are all made from a different animal.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

The orange colt raised his hoof. “Is that the only thing that’s special about them?”

Twilight giggled. “No, it’s not. And that’s part of why I’ve brought you here today. I could explain what’s so special about him, but now that you’re prepared for his unusual appearance I think it’s about time I bring him in and let him introduce himself.”

She glanced behind her. “Okay. You can come in now.”

Mayhem kinda wanted to make a cool entrance by coming in one body part at a time, but he was afraid of making a bad first impression on the kids by scaring them.

As annoying as it was, he decided to just enter the room normally. He’d have plenty of time for showing off later.

Even with Twilight’s warning the children felt unprepared for seeing him in the flesh. It was unnaturally quiet as he stood next to Twilight.

“Hello, everyone!” Mayhem said brightly, waving. “My name is Mayhem the draconequus. Nice to meet you.”

Once their initial shock faded their expressions all changed, some of them awed and some of them afraid of him.

“Okay, everyone!” said Twilight, tapping the floor a few times. “Why don’t all of you introduce yourselves now?”

The orange colt’s eyes were sparkling as he said, “I’m Flash Step. I’m super quick.”

The brown colt was a little apprehensive as he said, “I’m Chocolate Chip.”

The purple filly also seemed scared as she said, “I’m Plum Pie.”

The green filly had a neutral voice as she said, “I’m Sweet Pea.”

“Okay,” said Twilight, clapping her hooves together. “Now that introductions are out of the way I can explain why I’ve called all of you here.”

Plum raised her hoof. “You want us to be friends with him?”

“That seems a little rude to just bring us all here and try to force us to be friends,” said Chocolate.

Twilight didn’t lose her cheery attitude. “Quite right. That’s not why you’re here, although it certainly might be the end result of your time together.”

“So then what’s this friendship exercise?” Sweet Pea asked suspiciously.

“Mayhem here is learning about the magic of friendship, and he’s doing well, but he still has a ways to go. One of the best elements of a successful friendship is learning to share one’s gifts with others and put their happiness before your own. So that’s why the four of you are here, so he can share his special talent with all of you.

“Today is about making you happy, and if it ends with Mayhem making some new friends then great. I know Mayhem might look a little scary, but you shouldn’t judge someone just by their appearance. If you can see who he is inside I think you could be good friends with one another.”

Flash raised his hoof. “You said before that he can do something special. What is it?”

Mayhem grinned. “My power is to grant wishes.”

“Grant... wishes?” Chocolate said, his eyebrow going up. "You mean like a genie?"

He nodded. “Today is all about playtime. Tell me your impossible dreams, and I can make them a reality. We can go to space, or climb a mountain, or go digging for buried treasure.”

He could see he had their attention now. He raised a claw. “The only rule that must be followed is you can’t hurt anyone.” He gestured to Twilight. “Will you be my volunteer?”

She nodded. “Sure.”

With a snap of his claw a dragon about three times the size of a pony appeared, making all four children scream in terror.

The dragon started off friendly, acting like a dog as Mayhem threw a ball for it to fetch, wagging its tail, and panting in excitement with its tongue sticking out.

“The things that I create act according to the rules I set, like having this dragon act like a puppy. It’s completely harmless.”

The children seemed to be calming down a bit.

“Now, to show you how the rules will be in the games we play. Twilight, you trust me, right?” She nodded. “So please just stay still and don’t do anything.”

The dragon reared back and inhaled, fire in its maw. It thrust it's head forward and let out a stream of flames, engulfing Twilight entirely.

The children looked horrified, staring at the sight open-mouthed.

However, when the fire stream stopped Twilight was none the worse for wear.

The dragon lifted one of its claws, and swung it in her direction. Twilight had to fight to make herself stay still, her body and mind naturally wanting to defend itself against a perceived threat.

The claw seemed to impale her, but there was no blood and no cry of pain from Twilight. The dragon pulled back and swung its tail at her, hitting her in the side, coming out on her other side with again no reaction from Twilight. With a snap it disappeared.

Mayhem pointed at Twilight. “When my creations are acting nice and playful they’re very solid and can be interacted with. However, if at any point you’re in any actual danger of getting hurt they lose their solidity and just become mere illusions.

“As you can see, my rules are absolute. No matter what kind of crazy ideas for games you come up with we can play them with absolutely no chance of anyone getting hurt. Safety is the top priority no matter how we play or what we do today.

“Of course, I don’t know if any of you are going to want to play a game that would involve some kind of danger, but just in case you do at least you know that it’s completely safe. Nothing I create is allowed to harm you in any way.

“There’s one last thing I need to bring up before you can make your wishes though…” He looked over at Twilight. “Twilight, would it bother you not to participate in these games?”

She shook her head. “I’m doing this for your benefit. I don’t want to lose focus when I promised to keep an eye on you in case things went too far.”

He nodded, looking relieved. “Okay, so here’s the last safety rule. Let’s say you want to beat up a bunch of Timberwolves.”

With a snap three of them appeared, and he whacked all three of them, turning them into a big bundle of sticks. After a few moments the sticks all reformed into one huge Timberwolf. “Maybe things are getting too intense. You know you can’t actually be hurt, but maybe you still feel a little overwhelmed.

“What pony would you be most likely to look to for comfort? Twilight, of course, and she’s your safe spot. Literally.” He made a circle in the air with his finger and the area about ten feet around Twilight began to glow slightly.

He ran towards Twilight, the Timberwolf snapping at him all the while. As soon as Mayhem crossed the threshold of the circle the Timberwolf immediately gave up the chase, seemingly looking around for the being right in front of him as though it couldn’t see him, then went off in another direction.

He made the Timberwolf vanish, then said, “The last rule is that, so long as you are within this circle, you are no longer a part of my fantasy world. Maybe you’re not interested in whatever game someone else wants to play, or maybe you’re feeling frightened and need a break. Whatever the case may be, all my creations will completely ignore you while in the area around Twilight. This will ensure that you never have to force yourself to participate in someone else’s game.

"Now, this last bit isn't a rule in itself, but it relates to this rule. I want all of you to say the words 'to Twilight' for me."

"To Twilight!" they all repeated, and they reacted with surprise as they suddenly disappeared from their chairs and wound up in the circle around Twilight.

Mayhem lifted a claw. "This is your code word. Maybe you want out for a little while, but you're far away from Twilight when you get that feeling. This phrase will instantly teleport you directly to Twilight so you can break from the game without having to get through everything in-between.

“So with all the rules out of the way I want you to think about what you want out of today. Maybe it was something in a book or a movie, but think of something you’ve always wished you could do, and I’ll make it happen for you.”

Even Chocolate Chip and Plum Pie were losing their apprehension as they thought of what they wanted.

Flash Step was the first to speak up. “I want to have a pirate adventure! Finding buried treasure, having epic battles and exploring the sea… it sounds so fun.”

“Cool!” said Mayhem. “I can do that.” He lifted his claw, about to snap, but he didn’t do it. He got an awkward look on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

Mayhem opened his mouth, but nothing came out at first. “Um, Twilight? Can I talk to you in private?”

“Sure,” she replied. “We’ll be right back.”

They went to the room across the hall. “What’s wrong, Mayhem?”

Mayhem began to tremble, tears coming down his eyes. “This is wrong! It’s all wrong!”

“Hey, hey!” she said comfortingly. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I can’t do it!" He hugged himself, sniffling. "I don't belong here. I’m just a big screw up! I’m only going to hurt more ponies and then the parents will never forgive me and I’ll lose all my friends forever and everyone is gonna hate me and--”

Twilight scooped him up, hugging him close. “Shh. None of that now. You're gonna do fine!”

He hugged her hard to the point it was almost painful and sobbed on her shoulder.

She gave him a little time to release his emotions before speaking. “Listen to me, Mayhem. I can understand why you’re so afraid. This is all a normal part of the reformation process. You feel like you’re gonna slip up and go back to your old ways.

“Starlight was the same way when I offered her mercy and made her my student. She screwed up a bunch as she climbed her way up, and at times she did revert, but in the end she did it out of fear of letting me down.

“The most important thing to remember is that no one is perfect. That’s what I’m here for.”

Mayhem didn’t answer. He just kept crying on her.

“I think you understand things better than you give yourself credit for. I know you feel guilty, but that says a lot about you. Pound and Pumpkin both learned that making a mistake, even a big one, doesn’t mean that you’re bad to the core. A bad action is different than being bad.”

“B-b-b-but I almost killed all my friends!” Mayhem cried out. “When’s the last time you tried to kill your friends, huh? No good person does that!”

“Discord sold us all out to Tirek for the sake of power. If we hadn’t gotten the last key to unlock Rainbow Power from me forgiving him we all would have been under his control forever. Just like with Flurry and you I didn’t just offer that forgiveness randomly.

“While Tirek was demanding my magic in exchange for my friends they tried to discourage me, Fluttershy telling me they weren’t worth the sacrifice. Discord was trapped and drained of his magic like the rest of them, betrayed by Tirek the same way he betrayed us. I heard him talking to her, telling her that he thought she was worth it, and I could see the weight in his words and tone as he talked about how he had lost friendship and magic because of his actions.

“When Tirek released everyone but him he didn’t even complain about being stuck still. He didn’t react at all, feeling like he was getting what he deserved. I insisted that he be freed along with the rest of them.

“I didn’t demand Tirek do that because I expected Discord to gift me with the object that turned out to be the last key we needed. I did it because I could see his heart, and I wasn’t going to abandon him.”

She rubbed his back. “I’m sure you read Flurry’s note as well. Our power only grows as strong as it can be when we all combine our strength and work with one heart. That power was enough to overcome your reality-breaking powers and allow them to defeat you.

“I agreed with Flurry’s decision to forgive you, because like I told you that night I’d rather have you with us than to see you banished. I believe you are capable of being a great force of good to Equestria. That’s why we’re here right now.

“Do you remember what she said about Starlight? By offering Starlight love rather than coming at her with hatred I set her down a new path, where she has been a great asset to Flurry. You have that potential too to do great things with your power. I believe in you to be capable of that.”

Mayhem was quiet for a bit, then pulled away from her. “Why?” he asked, sniffling as he looked in her eyes. “Why… do you believe in me?”

Twilight gave him a warm smile. “Because you’re one of my subjects. As the princess of Ponyville I am connected to everyone. All are as my family. The mares and stallions are my brothers and sisters, and the colts and fillies my children."

"B-but... I'm not... a colt or a stallion." He hung his head. "So you don't really think of me as part of your family, then?"

Twilight bit her lip, quickly getting back her composure. "I'm sorry. The majority of creatures in Ponyville are ponies. I wasn't trying to be exclusionary. It's just the most common expression. I guess the more proper term I'm looking for is that I act as a parent to the children of Ponyville, whatever their species.

“As a parent figure one of my most important jobs is to believe in my children, and that includes you, of course.”

He stared at her wide-eyed.

She put a hoof to his heart. “You too have the magic of friendship inside of you. Yes, you screwed up, but in the end your defeat came about because you wanted it to happen. As you said, you put your heart in your friends, believing that no matter how far you fell into the darkness your friends would come after you to pull you out.

“Sometimes we need to make some big mistakes, because it teaches us to be different ponies.” She coughed, catching herself this time. “Or different people, rather.

“Life is like a road with infinite paths one could take. When you walk down a certain road it can show you something you didn’t want to see, and that tells you that that road is a painful dead end, and then you don’t walk down it again.”

He looked away at the ground. “But I did walk it again. The day I first met my friends I tried to kill you and all your friends and took over their bodies.”

“I don’t think that counts. At the time you didn’t have any friends, so why would you care about harming others? You had no connection to them and didn’t understand love and friendship.

“Yes, later on you did willingly choose to go down this route when you took them down to your world, but now you understand the gravity of such an action.

“Just think about it. You’re scared of using your magic now because of the fear of harming someone. The weight of that action hovers over you. As Fluttershy says, you should keep that feeling in your heart so you don’t succumb to the desire to ever act that way again, but you shouldn’t get so wrapped up in that feeling you stop trying.”

Mayhem looked uncertain. “But… I’m… I’m scared.” He looked up at her with teary eyes. "I'm really scared!"

Twilight hugged him again. “And that’s okay. It’s okay to be scared. That’s what I’m here for, to help stop you from walking that path again if you begin to stray down it.”

“What if… what if I do get too wrapped up in things? What if I don’t listen to you when you tell me to stop? I mean, when we first talked about this you said you were going to bring Daddy along so he could stop me if he needed to.”

She released him. “I thought about it, and, for the time being, I don’t think it would be good to have two of you around while they’re still trying to get used to one. However, don’t think for a moment that means I’m being careless.

“Watch this.” She set him down and backed up a few feet.

Mayhem looked up at her, and let out a yell as her head suddenly popped off her body. It wasn’t anything he couldn’t do himself, but that it was coming from her took him by surprise.

Her head reattached itself. “I’ve done a lot of thinking over the past week. I’m sure it would have been simple to gather some kids the day after what happened and start you right in on your new adventure, but the thing I had to consider the most was the safety of everyone involved. I needed to make sure everything was going to work out fine.

“In the end, I remembered the day we all met you, and how Pound and Pumpkin were pulling off all sorts of wacky stunts with just a tiny bit of chaos magic in them. The solution seemed obvious then. I asked Discord for the same, giving me enough of a boost to be able to step in and cancel you out if it came down to it.”

“Oooh,” said Mayhem, looking intrigued. “Do you like it?”

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes. “That first shot is a real doozy, but I’ve gotten used to it. I’m not interested in having this power full time, but it will be useful for your sake.”

She took his claw in her hoof. “I know you’re having some trouble believing in yourself, but do you still believe in me?” He nodded. “You said that you would do whatever I asked you, right?” He nodded again.

She moved her head down so it was closer to him and looked in his eyes. “Then I’m just asking you to believe in what I’m about to tell you. I believe in you, Mayhem. Just look at what happened across the hall.”

His eyebrow went up. “But... I haven’t done anything yet.”

“You sure did. You demonstrated your growth.”

“I did?”

She nodded. “When I first came up with my plan I said there had to be more of an emphasis on safety if you were going to be playing these sorts of games again. I expected that it would mainly come down to me paying attention to what was going on around me. That’s why it took so long, and why I made sure to get Discord’s power before commencing this.

“However, it seems I didn’t have to bother with that. You were a step ahead of me. Rather than letting your power just act as it would you came up with new rules to ensure everyone’s safety. You demonstrated those rules for the others so they’d know it was safe.”

Mayhem let out a breath. “Well… I… I did a lot of thinking too.”

She ruffled his hair. “You see? By feeling the consequences you learn from your mistakes so you don’t repeat them. This isn’t unique to you. It applies to everyone.

“Now let’s go back in there and start having some fun.”

Mayhem still looked a little uncertain.

“I told you a little while ago that I consider everyone in Ponyville a part of my family. Do you think for a second I’d ask you to do this if I thought it was going to put someone in danger?

“It’s like I told you before: I believe in you! If you can’t believe in yourself then believe in me! Believe in the me that believes in you. Believe in the me who feels that nothing is going to go wrong.”

“I… um… I… I’ll try.”

“Not good enough!” said Twilight playfully, extending a wing and rubbing it against his side.

The draconequus jerked away with a squeak. "Hey!"

“Come on, you! Give me a smile!”

"S-stop!" He poofed across the roof as she extended the other one.

She smirked at him. "Oh, no. You're not getting away that easy. I hadn't planned to play around with Discord's magic but you give me no choice." With a flash of her horn she was covered in a cloud of smoke.

When the smoke cleared Mayhem stared at her open-mouthed, lost for words.

Twilight now had eight sets of wings. One set was coming out of her ears, another from her neck, and the rest on her back. "Say hello to Equestria's first octocorn!"

Despite himself that made Mayhem break out into laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of it. He had thought Pound and Pumpkin's fusion form had been crazy awesome, but this was also super cool. As a being of chaos he heartily approved.

"Let's see you escape me now." All her wings extended like Flurry's had when she had superpowers, and though he tried to avoid them there was too many to dodge for long. Soon enough she caught him and began tickling him all over.

After a minute she stopped to let him catch his breath. “Feeling better now?”

He huffed a bit, and then nodded, giving her a smile.

“Good!" With a poof her extra wings disappeared. "Today is a great day to spread joy to others, and it’s the best way to make up for the pain you caused in the past. Just like Discord and Starlight there’s so much good you can do for others, and the only thing I want for you is to see you succeed.”

She hugged him close. “After all, you are one of my special children."

"Do... do you really think I'm that special?"

"I do indeed. After we left you that day I took your friends to my castle and told them that I felt they could be the next generation of the Elements of Friendship. But I didn’t exclude you from that. Not at all.

“Just like all of them, I wholeheartedly believe that you’ll be a great asset to them along the way as you continue to grow and learn. So don’t let your past drag you down, okay? Let’s look towards your future.”

Mayhem nuzzled her cheek as he returned her hug, feeling warm inside. “Thank you, Twilight. I needed that.

"I… I already have a mommy, and she told me that she wanted to keep being my mommy for as long as possible. I couldn’t break her heart by replacing her with you, but I’ll gladly make you part of my family. You’re an awesome princess.”

A tear came down her eye. “Thank you, yourself. So are you ready to go show everyone a great time?”

“Yeah! Let’s do it!”

“Glad to hear it.”

They released one another and headed back across the hall to the other room.

Author's Note:

Hey. Long time no post. I've been writing up a storm for the past month.

Trying out a new format. Give me your opinions on this. Would you rather me just post as I complete chapters, having each part spaced out like I usually do?

Or would you rather it be like this, where you have to wait a lot longer for the initial post, but then you get each chapter of the arc daily?

PreviousChapters Next