Bricks

by ThePower

Chapter 4

Stacks is truly one of the worst friends, and one of the greatest friends, a pony could ask for.

I asked him how I had survived my encounter with Rarity in the forest, and he told me that
he had had me followed by Snips and Snails. Snips managed to run back into town and tell Stacks about Rarity trying to kill me. Stacks then followed Snips back into the forest and saved my life. Rarity hadn’t seen Stacks coming from behind, and it only took one blow for her to join me in oblivion.

The story itself is still pretty unbelievable. Snips, with his stubby legs and lack of focus, seemed like the least likely person to find his way out of a forest, then back in, without getting lost. When asked about that, Snips just said he’d taken a shortcut. Pursuing that line of questioning just seemed... pointless, I guess. I didn’t bother. I didn’t have to.

Snails managed to get a few pictures of the whole thing with that old camera of his. He’s actually a pretty good shot, despite what some ponies may say about him.

I just couldn’t believe that Stacks was dumb enough to pay two mentally disabled foals to follow me into an extremely dangerous forest so he could get pictures of me and Rarity, and that his stupid plan had actually ended up saving my life. Stacks called it luck, but I don’t believe in luck. I believe in the power of coincidence. There are countless ways of interpreting what seem to be random occurrences, but I believe they aren’t random at all. Stacks’ poor decision making had simply worked in my favor that day.

A perk of being friends with Stacks, wealthiest pony in Ponyville.

I’m the second wealthiest pony in Ponyville, which is great because one of the greatest perks of being rich is being able to afford all the expensive, magical treatments that I need. Doctor Redheart had to call in a specialist from Canterlot to magically heal all of the damage I suffered during my little “date” with Rarity. I had to wait a few days for him to get here, but his treatment worked like a charm.

Of course, the good doctor made it quite clear afterwards that I was one of the worst patients she’d ever had. So far, I’d landed myself in her clinic twice in the same 24 hour period, which was, might I add, a personal record. I didn’t care much for her griping, though she did make sure I wasn’t so much as able to leave my own bed to go to the bathroom without her express permission.

I tried not to think too hard about her bedroom etiquette, despite the temptation to do so. All I could imagine were ropes and whips and safety words and all types of delectably improper things. I idly wondered if there was such a thing as brain-bleach. The opportunity to profit from something like that was hard to ignore.

A few more days passed while I lay strapped in my hospital bed, nearing a full recovery, when I decided to create an outlet for my boredom. With Stacks’ uncanny skill with a lock-picking set, we managed to sneak all of my stargazing equpiment onto the roof, allowing me to continue my research unhindered, or rather, almost unhindered.

I spent every night following Stack’s second break in working on the roof. The star maps I had drawn were useless. Months of work had been made irrelevant by a single act of violence. It would take a while for me to track and trace where each star had gone. It was on the eight night of my stay in the hospital when Doctor Redheart discovered me. She barged in on me as I settled on the constellation of Orion with Stacks in tow.

“Again?” She asked. I couldn’t tell if she was angry, disappointed, or just shocked that we had disobeyed her orders. Again.

“It was all his fault Doc! He came up with the whole idea.” Stacks cried, his eyes as wide as dinner plates. So much for loyalty amongst bros.

I decided to head her off before she could start ranting.“Listen, Doctor Redheart, science waits for no pony. The more time I spend confined to a hospital bed, the less time I have to complete my research. You’ve got to understand that-”

“Oh, I understand. I understand that you two morons can’t follow simple instructions and are, at best, a pair of disasters just waiting to happen.”

“Doctor, don’t you think that assessment’s just a tad unfair?” I asked a bit sarcastically. Above, Orion’s belt had snaked itself farther north towards the North Star. The star’s movement over the past few weeks had eclipsed my old data, my old predictions made useless. That alone warranted hours of recalculation, hours that I wasn’t sure that I had.

“No, I don’t think the assessment’s unfair. You two have caused me nothing but trouble.”

“Even me, Doc?”

“Was ‘you two’ not descriptive enough?”

“I thought you were talking to Sunny and his imaginary friend.”

“His... what?”

I whipped around to face the two ponies, my annoyance with them increasing by the second. “Can we just skip to the part where you leave,” I pointed at Doctor Redheart. “and where you go pour me another glass of wine?” I gestured Stacks over to a cooler under a tent by the door.

The doctor was not amused.

“I’m not leaving, not until you give me a reason.”

“Because I’m not hurting myself or anypony else. All I’m doing is looking through a telescope, and really, would you prefer that I sneak out of the hospital again?”

“... No, not really.”

“Then leave me to my devices. I’ll be out of your mane in three days and you can go back to healing the sick or whatever once I’m gone. All I’m asking for is access to your roof for a few days.”

She relented. “Just... make sure you get this stuff out of here when you leave.” I waved her off, satisfied with my victory. Stacks ran to the door and opened it for her as she left, smiling a creepy little smile.

“I love you,” he whispered at her retreating form. Hoping to get off that tangent and back to my work, I turned to my telescope. Grouping the stars by constellation had improved my efficiency, though I wass a little paranoid about making a mistake. I didn’t have time to go over my mistakes. Everything would’ve just had to have been done right on the first pass.

Stacks trotted over to my side, a frown already in the works. “Honestly, Sunny. That’s strike three. ”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. You’ve disappointed me three times so far.”

“How so?”

“Well,” He started, rearing back onto his haunches to get a little more comfortable. “Strike one was that you refused my amazing relationship advice by not letting me teach you the moves.”

I looked up from my telescope, quirking my eyebrow quizzically.“Okay, hold up. Who’s ever said your advice was worth anything anyway?”

“Everypony.” He stated rather matter-of-factly. “Sunny, I’ve been on more dates than there are stars in the sky-”

“That’s, like, highly improbable.” I added quickly.

“-So really, it was foalish of you to have just run away from me like that. I know more about dating than anypony else in Equestria.”

“Whatever. What’s strike two?”

“You didn’t help me when I was fighting that hick.”

“Her name’s Applejack, and did you really expect me to help you beat up some orange mare?”

“No, I expected you to be a bro and help me defend your honor.”

“I don’t know, Stacks. It looked like you had everything under control.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Were we seeing the same fight? She ran into the room making accusations about you doing things to her ‘gal’. I told her that her ‘gal’ was a psychopath that tried to kill my best bro, and she gave me two black eyes.”

“Dude, you pushed her out a window.”

“Sunny, she shrugged off the fall like it was nothing. She just galloped back up the stairs, took my empty bottle of bourbon, and smashed it over my head.”

“But you did hit her pretty hard with that chair.”

“Only after she knocked out a few of my teeth with that killer left hoof.”

I shrugged in concession. “Just tell me what strike three is.”

“You haven’t offered to be my wingpony yet.”

“With Doctor Redheart? Seriously? Aren’t you the dating expert here?”

He groaned in frustration. Apparently I wasn’t getting it, not that I really cared to. “S’not the difficulty, considering there is none. It’s the principle. You’re my best bro, right?”

“Right.”

“Then help me.”

“Do you not see me working here? I don’t have time to help you do something you can do yourself.”

He shook his head in disappointment, something I found he was doing a lot more of lately. “Sunny, believe me when I say we’ve got all the time in the universe, and more. Now, try to think of this as helping your bro during an important phase...”

I tried ignoring him, tuning him out, but he just wouldn’t stop talking. Then he started complaining. Then he started whining. Have you ever heard a pony with a deep voice whine? The sound is off-putting, and more importantly, distracting. You can’t help but not listen to it. I wasn’t going to get any work done like this.

“Okay! I get it. I’ll help.”

He perked up instantly. “Great! We’ll go to your place after you’re discharged and drop off all of this telescope junk, then we’ll head over to my place to work on my plan to win over Doc Redheart.”

I rolled my bright, glowing eyes dramatically. “Sounds like you’ve got things figured out”

“Oh believe me, I do.” He stretched his hoof out lazily, and despite how annoyed I was with him, I slapped it in a hoof-five. “Catch you later bro. I’ve got a little something to go take care of right quick.”

I watched him leave and sighed. Broship was hard, but worth it. Stacks was a steadfast companion, a smart advisor, and a loyal friend. Even if I could do better, I wouldn’t. What we shared together was magical, a lifelong commitment to something beautiful and indescribable. We were more than friends. We were best bros. Forever.

Satisfied that my best-friendship was healthy and intact, I turned back to my telescope. With Orion’s belt finished I had at least four of the major constellations on my belt. Pun intended. “Andromeda, here I come!”

Before I dove back into my research, I took note that Stacks was heading over to the graveyard again. I’d have to talk to him about that at some point.

________________

Anger and confusion flooded me. My knees shook, my eyes teared up, my heart felt crushed inside of my ribcage. Stacks was standing beside me, speechless. He didn’t know what to say. I didn’t either. The crowd around me was far more vocal, however.

“What happened?”

“There was an explosion.”

“Really? In Sun Spot’s house?”

“Yeah.”

“What caused it?”

“Must’ve been the furnace.”

“That’s nonsense. There was probably just a gas leak.”

“I heard differently. Somepony told me that it was arson.”

“Here in Ponyville? Are you nuts?”

“I’m telling you guys that it was the furnace.”

“It was definitely arson.”

“You’re both wrong. It had to be a gas leak.”

I tuned them out after a while, the arguing and whispering getting on my nerves. I didn’t care what caused the explosion, I just cared that my house was gone. Blown up. Destroyed. I could fix it, sure, but it wouldn’t be the same.

My father had imbued what was an empty plot of land with life. It’s hard, irrational, maybe even a little bit crazy to say that a mound of bricks and mortar has life, but you’d think otherwise after seeing one of my father’s creations. He had such a way of turning ordinary structures into works of art that felt alive. They were created. They lived and played and dreamed. They grew old, sick. And, when their time came, they died. If home is where the heart is, then I had a void where my heart was supposed to be.

The charred remains of my home made something ache in me. Red and green bricks were strewn about the area, having been expelled outward in what was presumably one hell of an explosion. The top right side of the building had lost form and toppled over while subsequent explosions sent the rest of the building flying in all directions. The buildings adjacent to my home had also suffered some damage, though it was mostly cosmetic damage. There were blast marks, broken windows, even holes in the walls where bricks had smashed through.

The roof of my house was missing amidst the destruction. My home is uniformly square, and in the explosion the four walls were shattered and thrust outwards, but the roof should have caved in once the walls were gone. I’d have to go look for it later.

“Dude, your house-”

“Shut up.”

Ponyville doesn’t have a fire brigade to deal with fires. Instead, everypony of age undergoes special training so that, in the event of a fire, anypony would, theoretically, be able to act to fight the fire. My neighbors had probably seen, even felt the explosion and worked to put out the resulting fires before they burned down out the whole neighborhood.

“Listen, Sunny-”

“No words. Not yet.”

I didn’t want to hear the obligatory pity parade. I didn’t want anypony’s sympathy. I just... wanted to hold off on that stuff until I took measure of the destruction with my own two eyes. My legs moved of their own accord, pulling me forward into the smoking ruin. No pony followed me, or tried to stop me. Not even Stacks.

I held my breath and closed my eyes tight as I crossed through a cloud of smoke and into my living room. Curiously, my eyes stopped stinging. I opened them and realized that there actually wasn’t a cloud of smoke, just a veil of one billowing around the outer edges of my home.

The mayor was on her haunches in the middle of the room, drinking shots from a green bottle. I didn’t say anything at first, but eventually I spoke up. I immediately avoided asking her any of the more pressing questions that I had. It seemed too soon, whatever that means. “What’s that? Gin?”

“Whiskey. Single-malt.”

“Nice.” She downed another shot, then poured herself some more.

“You’ve always been a stupid, stupid foal.” She told me, choking up every once while out of intoxication. “But never have you surprised me like this. Following a mare you don’t even know that well into the Everfree Forest because she sent you a love letter?” She laughed heartily, prompting me to smile awkwardly.

“You missed your appointment with death, Sun Spot. You were supposed to be here.”

“I was?” I surveyed the nigh-total destruction of my home. The sofa was ripped to shreds, the mirrors were all cracked, the bookcase in the corner was knocked over, and the books themselves were nothing more than ash-covered husks.

The coffeetable seemed to be alright, aside from the puddle of tears and booze.

“I’m kind of glad that I wasn’t, to be honest. Though, if you were trying to kill me, you could’ve just said so. Though, I don’t get how resisting pressure to change the outward appearance of my home translates into you blowing up my house.”

“You’re still as ignorant as ever, Sun Spot.” She managed without slurring. I commended her internally for being able to hold her liquor, for an aging mare that is.

“If you know so much, why don’t you just enlighten me?”

“What does it matter? My plan to blow you up failed, Rarity’s plan failed, and now they’re going to come after us. After you. ”

“There was a bomb here? Was that what was in the package that you gave to Derpy? And, wait, you and Rarity were in on things? And who’s they? Why are they after me? Why were you after me?”

“Ugh...” she teetered forward and collapsed onto the coffee table. It held, surprisingly. “No more questions. They give me headaches when I’m drunk.”

“Right.”

She paused, considered the shot glass in her hands, and threw it casually to the side, favoring the bottle itself. She lifted it up with her hooves and teeth to take another swig. The bottle was nearing its end. “If I’m going to start explaining everything, you’ve got to believe what I say. Every word, without question.”

“Mayor?”

“You’ve got to promise me that you’ll believe what I say.” She looked me straight in the eye, lucid and alert. I was taken aback, but composed myself to respond.

“Sure, I guess.”

“Not good enough!” She said, slamming a hoof onto the coffee table. I saw tiny fractures in the glass spread out from the point of impact like a spiderweb stretching out in all directions.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. She was heavily intoxicated, emotional, and responsible for the state my house was in. In my indecision, I took something out of Stacks’ playbook and just rolled with it. “I promise.”

“Good. Good...” She nursed the rest of what had to be her fifth or sixth drink before tossing that into the crater too.

“Let’s start at the beginning then.”

Comments

[Scorchy101]

Not sure about this chapter, if I'd known the person who tried to blow me up was in my living room, idc what I'd use, they'd be dead