Pepper
Chapter seven: Pepper.
Pepper Pot was a quiet little filly.
Somehow, she always managed to be subdued, never getting excited, never getting upset. Her manner was, quite often, indifferent, or it seemed to be, and her temper was colder than the highest peaks of the Godsreach mountains in midwinter. If she spoke, she did so gently. Most ponies who saw her were first struck by how pretty she was, then by her aloof appearance.
She also despised being the daughter of a Wonderbolt. That’s not to say she hated her father, far from it. She harboured him no resentment, nor her mother for marrying him. She loved them both dearly. Because of the fact that she was the daughter of one of the esteemed Wonderbolts, she’d rather coldly shouldered aside any gold digging foals who only wanted to know her because of her father or any fans of Soarin’s that tried to get to him through her. After doing so, she’d found a small, tight circle of friends that stuck by her. She was, without a doubt, the peacekeeper of the group, passing off leadership whenever she could.
Pepper did not like having the weight of responsibility on her shoulders.
She was, without a doubt, the most driven and most intelligent of the fillies in Skeleton’s brood, and had the alarmingly interesting ability to take in everything that was said or shown mentally and hold it for indefinite amounts of time. Through this, she was excelling at school, powering through as though it didn’t even exist. Her literature and mathematics skills were especially impressive and, along with in close second, her grasp on science.
Pepper adored science.
She loved the complication of it all, the way everything worked. She liked the idea that she could know what was going to happen, and the thrill of not knowing until she tried. Due to her rather excessively driving thirst for knowledge, she always took at least four non-fiction books to school as well as her customary two to three small novels.
Yep, Pepper was a pioneer of knowledge. The perfect student.
On this day, her mind were processing her mother’s rather interesting refusal to repeat what she’d spoken of the other night concerning the doctor and his ‘experiments’ and ‘research’. She could hear what the teacher was saying, and that meant it was being stored away in the vaults of her mind, but aside from that, she was paying no attention. She passed away the day in a half daze, variably answering her friends absently and ignoring them quite by accident. Although there was one time when she rather coldly told one particular filly that she was, in fact, not her friend and that she couldn’t get an autograph from Soarin through her. This seemed to upset the filly a little and she went rushing to a teacher.
Fortunately for Pepper, after the first incident, no teacher was willing to even try to discipline Pepper. That’s not to say she didn't get in trouble. It was normally when she returned back home that she finally heard her mother’s scolding rather than her teacher’s.
The next week passed in much the same fashion. Skeleton stopped telling them stories in favour of spending time with her parents, Soarin was almost always either with her or out with his team, or with his team at the house. She’d noticed that all of the Wonderbolts, even the elusive and rarely seen Jetpaw, adored Skeleton’s mother. Pepper liked her well enough. She just wished she didn’t treat her like a china doll. Ghost Charm might adore it and Clear Skies might complain, much to Mirror’s amusement, but Pepper simply took it in silently. Her brooding silence, however, did not go unnoticed. At lunch midweek one day, one of her friends took her aside. He was a bespectacled young colt with half moon spectacles made after the glasses one of his favourite book characters wore, short cropped mane and docked tail. He was a bookish sort of Pegasus and, like Pepper, was rarely seen without one. Borderline autistic, he was shy, incredibly quiet and an absolute genius. Having already finished the work for the entirety of the year, he spent the majority of the time in his classroom either helping those kind enough to him or reading one of his many books. Whilst he was a genius in general, his speciality was sciences both applied and theoretical. His main interest was magical sciences and his cutie mark had appeared some time ago, an image of an atom complete with ‘rotating’ protons. Pepper liked him quite a bit more than her other friends, since he was indifferent to her father, treated her like an equal to him despite his obvious advantages over her and loved many of the same books as she did. They were rarely seen apart in school.
“Pepper, I know something’s bothering you,” He said quietly, “What’s wrong?”
There were also his eyes. There was something about his eyes Pepper found fascinating. Those rose coloured eyes of his. Similarly, she was certain her eyes fascinated him, with their bright orange colour and almost luminescence.
“Nothing of consequence” She replied a little too quickly, “Just a small thing.”
“A small thing that has distracted you for almost three weeks now?”
Pepper looked at him sharply. He didn’t even flinch. The pair stared at each other for a while before Pepper sighed.
“You’re too clever for your own good. And it’s only our first year at school.”
He smirked at her in response.
“What can I say? It’s part of my charm. Now what’s wrong?”
Pepper considered telling him everything. She knew she could trust him to keep a secret. The problem was the nature of the niggling irritation in the back of her mind. She didn’t want to frighten him, nor leave him with nightmares. She very rarely got nightmares, simply because she was not only a practical and logical pony, but because her mother was practically the queen of scary stories. Eventually she nodded, deciding.
“Alright. I’ll tell you. But This doesn’t go beyond you and me okay?”
He nodded solemnly. Something else that she liked about him. He didn’t seem to be capable of even understanding the concept of lying. And so Pepper started talking. The break was only a half hour long, so she was still talking when they started filing back into class. Even during class she spoke at a low whisper. The teacher did not bother them. She knew that Pepper would have finished her work if she was talking, and it wasn’t far from the truth. She spoke at length and described the stories her mother told them, how it seemed to be effecting her but her also stubborn refusal to stop. That was something she’d overheard her mother and father talking about, and she knew it was Ghost Charm that had finally brought up the thing that was concerning all of the fillies most. At the end of it all it was last period.
“…and now I want to know what happened and she won’t tell me. It’s been bugging me for ages now and she won’t tell me what it is. That’s what’s been bothering me.”
The young colt pushed his glasses up from where they’d slipped down his muzzle and his forehead screwed up in thought.
“Well, perhaps she hasn’t told you because she knows it’ll scare you? Your mama can be pretty scary and her stories are normally about as scary as her Nightmare Night costumes, and that’s scary.”
Pepper made an unconvinced sort of sound in her throat before sighing just as the bell signalling the end of the day rang out across the school.
“Maybe. Doesn’t make me feel any better though. Her not telling me makes me worry even more.”
It was at this point Soarin stepped into the classroom, Clear Skies and Ghost Charm in tow. Clear Skies took one look at the two foals and an impish smile crept across her face. As Pepper walked up to her father, friend in tow, Skies grinned.
“Hey Pepper. Hey Pepper’s coltfriend~♫”
Soarin, seconds away from scolding her, fell quiet as the young colt answered for himself.
“Skies. Still using all the muscles except the one that matters.”
Skies coloured heavily and fell silent. The young prodigy then turned to Ghost and inclined his head to her politely. A move Ghost reciprocated. Ghost Charm liked her sister’s best friend. He didn’t bother her and he treated her with a sort of kind sincerity. Although in many respects, he was still very similar to Pepper. Soarin smiled down at Pepper, having gotten away from training early enough to pick the girls up.
“Ready to go Pepper?”
She nodded quietly before speaking up.
“Father?”
“Yes Pepper?”
“Can Brainiac come home with us to visit please?”
Soarin looked at the colt sternly. Brainiac, to his credit, didn’t so much as flinch. To be honest, his name wasn’t actually Brainiac, but his friends, few though they were, had quite affectionately nicknamed him so and it had stuck. Now, even the teacher called him that. His blunt look at Soarin made Soarin a little suspicious.
“Well, I suppose. He’s not going to cause trouble is he?”
Brainiac, once more, answered for himself.
“Would an explosion occur if I mixed Sulphur and Sodium?”
Soarin’s look turned very, very perplexed.
“W..Wha?”
Pepper giggled.
“He means no Father.”
Soarin looked a little perturbed that a foal in his first year at school would know this, but nodded warily.
“I suppose he can. If his parents allow it. We’ll drop by and ask on our way home.”
~*~
As it turned out, Brainiac’s parents were all too happy to let him go to a friend’s house, to the point of asking if he’d be staying the night. Soarin, not wanting to be too hasty, told them he’d let them know on that score. It wasn’t long before the quartet were home, sweet and sound. Abandoning all forms of social pretences, Pepper and Brain almost instantly left to the upstairs rooms in search of books and things.
Or, so the others thought.
Among Skeleton’s few but strict rules, the one that prohibited the sharing of a bed with anypony other than their mother or father until they were a certain age was possibly the most intensely disciplined rule in the household. As a result, creating another mattress out of cloud was essential for anypony sleeping over. Since Pepper and Brain didn’t really care either way, they cleared a space for the mattress just in case and sat in said space, directly next to each other but not physically touching. This was another almost automatic thing from both of the foals, they hated being unnecessarily touched. Physical contact without reason was seen by both as both useless and pointless as well as annoying.
The pair got along well.
“I think I this is the closest thing I have to possible answers. Shall we take a look?”
The book before the pair was a large, hard cover book labelled ‘Marigold’s Medicine and Medicinal Sciences’. It was not exactly what she’d been looking for, but ‘mad doctors’ didn’t seem to be a legitimate topic in literature for some reason. It took only a nod from Brain for the pair to begin poring over the book. It took them all of about five minutes to give up on the book and sit for a while before Pepper smiled.
“Bookforts?”
Brainiac looked startled for a moment before grinning devilishly back and pushing his glasses up from where they’d slipped.
“You’re on.”
~*~
“No, no story tonight girls. It’s gotten too late and school is in the morning. Maybe tomorrow, when you don’t have school the next day.”
The trio of fillies groaned and Brainiac simply burrowed deeper into the covers of his little mattress. Skeleton raised an eyebrow at the three girls and they fell silent. She smiled at them, slightly regretfully.
“Besides. I’m tired and it’s difficult to remember things when I’m tired. Goodnight girls.”
“Goodnight mummy!”
“Goodnight Miss Grin.”
Skeleton smiled down at Brainiac.
“Goodnight Brainiac. Sweet dreams.”
~*~
“So. Decided to stop then?”
Skeleton looked over at Soarin to her left, laying next to her, and blinked.
“I’m sorry?”
“The stories,” He replied casually, “You decided to stop then?”
“Oh. No, it’s not that… Just I don’t think the girls are the best audience anymore. I’ve sort of told them what I could. Anything else would scare them out of their wits and I’d rather they weren’t as… socially disinclined as I was.”
Soarin felt his brow raise.
“That bad huh?”
She nodded quietly and she looked at him with a sidelong glance.
“But… if you don’t mind…”
A pale blue wing draped over her and she felt a gentle nuzzle at her neck.
“If it makes you feel better dear, go ahead.”
Hey guys, sorry this took so long. It wasn't intentional, I've just had a difficult time focusing on anything recently. And I'm going to get straight to the point here. I'm running out of ideas concerning tales for Skeleton to tell, so unless I come up with something or you guys can help me out, It'll be moving on from stories about her past to her facing her past after the next chapter, in which her possibly worst 'scar' becomes quite clear for Soarin's eyes. Thanks to you all for your support and I hope I haven't let you down.
~Valorousspectre~
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Hrm.. I vote for attempting to toss in Soarin' finding Splintered Dreams before having her describe her worst scar. Either way, I'm really enjoying this. Definitely needs more reads and votes than it has.
Man, why doesn't this story have more views? It's really enjoyable, one of my favorites to be honest. Grammar is excellent, story is interesting...seriously.
1153832
Because people are idiots and they refuse to read a good story just because it's got a tiny bit of grimdark in it.
Come on mates, the bit with the doctor was **that** gory or dark...
Enjoying your story man, it's quite the read. If you want my "two bits" on some ideas, how about try explaining the "mental" scars that she indures that created a "grim" subconscious (that was evident on the first story) that she relied on for survival. After all it is the scars within the mind that carries the most burden am I right?
I am looking forward to your updates on your fic man, keep up the good work
Emotional scars, maybe she tries to get a coltfriend and was ridiculed, though she already had a crush on Soarin.
Maybe she had to sew herself some of those scars and that's how she learned to sew the towel. The towel's story could be interesting.
And how she got such refined accent.
1179215
Her mother is from Cloudsdale, Her father was taught in Canterlot. Take your pick.
amazing story can't wait for more
Also I noticed that you made it to where the
Dad was a pegasus when in an earlier chapter
He was a unicorn
1202065
Did I?
Dammit, I'll fix that. Thanks for pointing that out.
Wait, no he wasn't.
WHAT IS THIS SORCERY!? WHICH CHAPTER!?
>>Valorousspectre
It was when Grin was talking about how she loved genes while in school.
You said that the father had the recessive unicorn gene and the mom had the dominate Pegasus gene
1205543
Oh I see. Sorry. I've been sick, my mistake. I'll fix that.
It's ok and I'm sorry to be " that kind" of guy
All in all great story
And get well soon
Whatever you do don't stop this story for a little bit. Find Splintered Dreams, find Chemise, do something lighthearted rather than, the nitty gritty parts of the story such as a picnic, or a trip to ponyville, meet up with Zecora again. just please don't stop I'm really enjoying this fic to my hearts content.
1343884
You say 'find Splintered Dreams' as though it'd be a happy reunion. Splintered Dreams is a liar, a thief and a murderer.
Skeleton Grin is BEST OC!!!!!!!!