Talent Discovery Association
We spent the rest of the day working on the farm picking apples, and the next few weeks as well. It was boring and tiring, and felt just like working at the restaurant I did before. It was exactly what I needed in my life, and absolutely helped me work on managing dysphoria.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle practically gawked at me when they saw the mark on my butt, clamoring over me and begging to know what it meant and how I got it and what it felt like to have my special talent. They weren’t particularly satisfied with the answer that I felt exactly the same now as I did before or that I spent several years studying my field. They chalked up my lack of excitement to me being a weird alien.
The two of them did occasionally help out on the farm with Caramel and I, the logic being that since I got my cutie mark here, they could get their cutie marks here, too. Eventually, they ran into the farmer’s little sister and formed a club about searching for cutie marks, of which they made me an honorary member. We were sitting underneath an apple tree eating lunch as we talked about it.
“Ah got it! The Cutie Mark Crusaders!” the yellow filly said, to the applause of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.
“I don’t know,” I chimed in. “I wouldn’t really call it a ‘crusade’ per se. I just got mine randomly from helping your older sister with her finances.”
“Well what do you think then, Asher?” Sweetie Belle asked. “If you already found yours, then maybe you should come up with the name!”
“Well, a cutie mark signifies your special talent, right? How about the Talent Discovery Association?” I offered. The three of them raised their eyebrows to me as though they didn’t like the idea.
“Well, I mean, it has to be focused on the talent aspect rather than the cutie mark aspect, I think. Otherwise, how am I supposed to be in the club if I already have one? Plus, I’m sure other people have other talents. Like, for example, I wasn’t going to be a banker or financial advisor when I was done with college. I was going to manage a restaurant or a store. They’re not nearly the same thing. Not to mention, I can cook, and, um, other things.”
“And that way we can let other ponies be in our club!” the yellow pony finished for me. “Wow, yer friend is really smart! No wonder she got her cutie mark so soon! How old are ya again?”
“I don’t know. About nine? I’d need a calculator or some paper to give you an exact age. But for all intents and purposes, nine.”
“He’s actually twenty five and from a place called ‘Earth’! Plus, he’s really a boy, but he just looks like a filly, and Princess Celestia came to my house to meet him, and–”
“And he’s amazing!”
“I’m not amazing, just old,” I said, smiling at hearing male pronouns. “But I appreciate the compliments.”
It was weird how a couple of kids could call me a boy when a whole lot of adults couldn’t. Maybe it was something about their childish naivety.
I hope I’m not being a bad influence on them. I don’t want them to suddenly say they’re trans when I know they’re not. If that happened, I would be extremely upset with myself.
“Huh, if all that’s true, then ya really are weird. No wonder everypony’s sayin’ Silver Spoon likes ya.”
“What? Who said that?” I asked, blushing a little bit and feeling uncomfortable by the thought.
“Ah dunno. Everypony really. Like, she talks about ya all the time around town. Ah didn’t know you were the pony she was talkin’ about though.”
“That– that sounds fake,” I said, dismissing it. “And it doesn’t matter anyway because I’m not interested. The very first reason being because I’m an adult and she’s a child.”
“Huh? What does that mean?” the girl asked. "Yer a filly just like us."
“Let’s move off the subject please,” I said, feeling extremely uncomfortable. “Is the name ‘Talent Discovery Association’ okay?”
“Sure as hay it is! It’s great! And if we’re an association, that means we can make flyers and things! Ah’m sure my sister’ll help!”
“So then it’s all settled then! We’re the Talent Discovery Association!” The three of them put their hooves in the middle and looked at me expectantly to do the same.
“Come on, Asher!” Scootaloo said. “You’re in the association, too, since you came up with that whole name. You gotta put your hoof in the middle, too, and cheer with us.”
I sighed and did as requested, waiting for them to cheer. They didn’t though, all three of them looking at me with expressions that said they thought I was going to do something weird.
“What are we waiting for?” I asked. “You said you wanted me to cheer, right?”
“Are you gonna cheer?” Scootaloo asked. “You have to go from the top of your lungs, as loud as you can.”
“I don’t know if I can do all that, but–”
“Asher.” She frowned at me, giving me a serious expression I’d never seen from her, one I certainly didn’t expect from a ten year old. “We know you’ve been sad a lot and act kind of boring and are really supposed to be super old, but you’re our friend and we wanna see you cheer.”
“Yeah. You’re our best friend, even if you are a smelly colt,” Sweetie Belle chimed in. Apparently even as young as they were, they knew how to manipulate me, because their words got me to smile. I didn’t really like kids before, but I could say I at least liked these two.
“Are you gonna cheer, Asher?”
“Yeah, I’ll cheer,” I assured them. “I’ll cheer as loud as I can.”
“Good! On three then! One, two, three–”
“Talent Discovery Association go!”
We laughed at that, but I didn’t really join them when they proclaimed they were going to start discovering their special talents. I kept on working with the apples with Caramel, working most days for several hours a day. It was hard work, but I kept at it, benefiting from the distraction. As Applejack took my advice and raised her prices, she even paid me a little bit. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
Twilight wasn’t enthused about my helping Caramel with their work, but she didn’t talk about it much. She seemed not to care for me much at all, leaving me to my own devices for the most part. She did make a little comment about my cutie mark, saying it meant that I wasn’t a foal anymore, although she at least acknowledged that I was an adult either way when I mentioned it.
Other than that, my next few weeks were largely eventless, at least until I was given a ticket to some party in Canterlot by Twilight.
“It’s supposed to be the party of the year!” Twilight said excitedly, running around the library and making notes and seeing to it that everything was in order. “I wonder what kind of dress I should wear! Do you think Rarity would make one for me?”
“I don’t see why she wouldn’t, but do I have to go?” I asked. “I know Celestia’s gonna be there, but–”
“That's Princess Celestia, and yes. I already have three tickets, and she made it clear that one of them was for you. It’s a high end affair, too, so you might want to find a nice dress to wear, too.”
“Of course she did, and of course it is," I commented, rolling my eyes. "But I don’t think it’s something you need to make an entirely new checklist for.” Certainly not something I'd be wearing a dress for, no way.
“I absolutely have to! I want to make sure I’m prepared! We only have until next spring to prepare for it!”
“And if a year is a thousand days, I’m sure that means you actually have literally multiple years to worry about it.”
“Well if it’s the thirtieth day of summer today, that means we have less than eight hundred days to get ready! This is such short notice! Most ponies get their tickets years in advance, it's that great of an event!”
“Okay. So you have eight hundred days then to prepare. If you're really concerned, you can do one thing to prepare once a week, and still have over a hundred weeks to get ready. You need to calm down.”
“You’re right. You’re right. I won’t be able to think clearly if I’m not calm, and with so much to do, I have to have my head clear. Oh, but who should I take? I have a whole lot of new friends now!”
“Just listen to all of them and take the one who has the best reason. Or whoever you like the most. It’s not something you have to stress about.”
“But what if the others hate me for taking one pony over another? I mean, I'm sure Lightning Dust feels too cool for a party like this, and Big Mac probably wouldn't want to go–”
"He doesn't because I'm helping his sister with their budgeting issues so they don't have to go," I brought up. "They really convinced themselves that they'd make money selling apples at a place that apparently has free food."
"But Pinkie Pie loves parties, and there's no way Rarity would want to miss a high class event in Canterlot like this! And who knows Fluttershy's thinking? That's potentially two ponies mad at me! One at least!"
“Why would they be mad at you?” I had to ask. It seemed Twilight had the potential to spiral when left with a decision, something Celestia should have known about if she was her student. I wondered if she did this on purpose.
“If they’re your friends, they won’t mind,” I said slowly, trying to bring her down from her near panic. “If you’re worried about it, just take Spike and say it’s because you’ve known him the longest.”
“Do you think that’ll work?” she asked breathlessly. “Spike, would you go with me?”
“No way! I don’t wanna…” He saw the pleading look Twilight was giving him, as well as the look I sent his way asking him to just say yes and changed his tune.
“Well, I mean, I guess I will, but only because you’re my friend and I don’t want you to freak out. It’s not because I like any of that froo-froo girly nonsense.”
“Thank you, Spike,” the unicorn said gratefully. “I appreciate it.”
“I can’t say I’ll enjoy it either, but since I have to go…”
“I thought you’d want to go anyway, Asher,” the librarian told me, changing her expression back to a calm one in a second. “You said you wanted to be a politician, right? Well, this would be your chance to make an impression on all of the nobles there. I heard Celestia’s nephew, Prince Blueblood, goes every year. You could try and talk to him and work your way in if that’s what you want.”
“Hmm… there’s a thought… so long as they aren’t looking at me like I’m a little girl. It’s gonna be hard to make any sort of impression in that case.”
“Well you’ve already made an impression in Ponyville, according to Filthy Rich.”
“What? I have?” I was surprised by that news. I tried to wrack my brain for what I could’ve done that got someone’s attention already. So far all I’d been doing was being sick, fighting with Celesita, and largely nothing else.
“How did I make an impression on somepony? I mean, someone?”
“Apparently Filthy Rich wasn’t very happy about apple prices being raised, and so went to the Apple Family farm to see what was up. And then Applejack told him about you and how you convinced her to raise her prices. That’s what Mayor Mare told me when I was having brunch with her a few days ago anyway.”
“Well that’s certainly interesting, but I don’t see how that gets me any sort of recognition since everyone is probably not that happy about raised prices.”
“Well I know he has a business selling apples to ponies in Canterlot, and he talks to a lot of them often. But either way, he said he’d like to meet you from what Mayor Mare told me. I gave her the go ahead to tell him that he can come by any time.”
Yes! That was such a good thing to hear! I didn’t mean to create an in this quickly, but now that I potentially had one, I would absolutely be using it to my advantage. I had to smile at the thought of that.
“Seems like somepony’s excited,” Twilight commented, giving a little smile of her own. “I guess you really want to meet this pony.”
“Absolutely! This is so perfect!” I didn’t know how it would go, but I could only assume if someone was interested in me despite the age I looked like I was, it was only so they could get me on a path to be a politician. I could probably guess what the conversation was going to be about, and it made me smile wider at the thought of it. I’d be working my way up extremely quickly.
I was sure Celestia would love hearing about this once she got word of it.
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i somehow feel like Filthy Rich will look down on Asher
11271120
Whaaaat? There's no way the guy with the name "Filthy Rich" is going to go full-capitalist mode on the guy who told Filthy's suppliers to raise their prices. Uh uh, no way!
Be careful Asher, rejoicing in the suffering of another is sinful. You wouldn't want to have to do penance.
11271120
Oh I'm sure it'll be fine. It's not like Asher is attacking his bottom line or anything
An in this?.. Aninthis? An inn this?..
11271513
Create an in this quickly. As in, he created "an in" into politics "this quickly".
11271513
'Have an in', is a phrase to say that you have an opportunity to have influence over someone or a scenario.
(I apologize if this was not what you were looking for, and were instead looking how it should be worded...)
11271520
Ah, so you're going to throw a filly with no experience into politics. Can't say I like where it's going. At all.
11271541
English is not my first language, even if everyone says I am good in it. Thanks for explanation.
Dunno why you deleted your comment, but nevertheless...
And the nobles he's going to play The Great Game of politics with are 120+ years old, may have several educations, and a huge headstart in political experience.
Ah, the joys of time dilation.
A politician and a devotee. I wonder if the title of Pope is eligible once Asher has a stronger standing?
Ponies seem to experience time slowly and weirdly. 800 days is short notice, but suddenly they can be on par to humans when it comes to action, occationally. Maybe the all vegetarian diet consumes most of their energy to break down.
11271667
I think it is like elves; you know you have all the time in the world so why hurry? Even in the show the ponies were highly conservative and traditional. They only really changed when the world presses back before sliding back into their rut.
(While a thousand days to a year isn't canon, and might be a plot hole, it raises interesting questions and thought experiments in regards to existing lore)
11271589
It is unlikely that they will have multiple educations simply "because age" as they seem to take their time. I think it takes 12 years of college for us to produce a medical doctor. Ponies might also take 12 years... their years. I think Asher will do fine as another skill they lack is critical thinking and their canon xenophobia means they will be completely unprepared to deal with a pony that doesn't think like a pony. Which means Asher might never get his hoof into the door until he properly submits to the master pony race and embraces their culture...
You do understand that she is not Asher's princess, right? Unless Celestia has taken the time to enslave him he is still a foreigner living almost illegally.
I was just thinking of a comment regarding mac and dusty being strangly absent mere lines before they were mentioned, ha
So I've made it this far and I have to ask, does it get any better?
There's a serious lack of character development and growth.
It's been a repeat of the same issues from chapter 3 to now. He demands to be called a male even though he's in a female body. He doesn't like authority. He doesn't want to be there. He isn't adapting. He reiterates every interaction his gender preference.
Nothing has happened, will something happen? Or is it going to stay at this constant?
I'm overlooking the fact you have gone with the 1000 day year route that makes no sense and the constant Jesus references.
11521353
It is an extremely slow burn, something that, with the benefit of hindsight, I would fix.
It could be a good thing. Handling the nobles might be tragically easy compared to earth politicians.
Imagine if someone constantly corrected you for saying just "Trump" instead of "President Trump" 😂