• Published 1st Jul 2020
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Beyond Me - Boopy Doopy



This isn't me. I am not this pony.

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Avoidance

Somehow, I expected Celestia to come down on me that day, but she didn’t, surprisingly enough. I did get a second visit from Mayor Mare though, and she did apologize to me for not believing me. It made me feel a bit better, but not by much. It wasn’t like she was doing this because she was gonna believe me in the future. More likely, it was only because she realized what the rest of the Talent Discovery Association were saying. Still, I took it.

Apparently either she or Filthy Rich told the other’s parents first, because after that, I was being woken up again to talk to ponies, everyone but Apple Bloom’s parents showing up. None of them looked particularly happy, but Scootaloo’s parents had a particularly angry look on their faces, second only to Filthy Rich’s. I couldn’t see why it took about six ponies to harass one little girl, especially one that was younger than their children were, but I didn’t say that out loud.

All but Rich’s looked dropped when they saw the sick state I was in. It helped that Twilight was there to put an end to things and explain that I wasn’t causing trouble. But the way Scootaloo’s parents looked at me still didn’t seem particularly happy. Mr. Rich stomped away in a huff afterward, but Sweetie Belle’s parents at least had the decency to say they were sorry for bothering me and for the misunderstanding. They actually seemed a bit upset with Rich, which I enjoyed. They even invited me to have cake with them with Sweetie Belle when I started to feel better, they felt bad about coming to me the way they did.

Thankfully, just like with Rainbow Dash, their broken bones healed remarkably quickly, and in just two or three days, they were back to running around again outside, at least until they were grounded. It was only for a couple of weeks, but for those couple of weeks, it was only Silver Spoon and I hanging out together, not doing much other than reading books and talking. I wished though that other ponies were there, because I could tell she was only getting more attached to me.

It was about halfway through the period in which we were grounded that Celestia finally visited me, just like I expected her to. She tried to keep a straight expression, even a slightly sympathetic one on account of my still being sick again, but I could see right through it and could tell she was furious with what she likely heard from Filthy Rich.

“I’ve heard you’ve been getting into quite a few situations, Asher,” she told me, trying to sound polite. “I’d like to hear about it if you’re willing to tell.”

“What’s there to say?” I asked. “You probably heard it all from Filthy Rich already. There’s not gonna be anything for me to add.”

“Perhaps not, but I’d like to hear all that’s happened between you and the rest of Ponyville from your perspective in any case. Can you do that for me?”

Honestly, I wanted to argue and not do anything she wanted me to do, especially with her talking to me using that patronizing tone. But I knew better, and knew that she was just gonna get angry with me and threaten me if I didn’t comply.

“Gosh dangit,” I rolled my eyes as I said, “The short story made even shorter is that I did absolutely nothing and a whole bunch of ponies got mad at me anyway. As in, I literally did nothing to antagonize anyone, and even went out of my way to avoid doing things that would make people upset.” I sighed and continued, “But Filthy Rich probably gave you a different story about how I tried to make it my business to harass him, as if he’s important enough for me to want to do something like that to him in the first place.”

“Well, what exactly was it that you did to get him so upset?”

“I told Apple Jack she should raise the prices of her apples because her farm was in a state of complete disrepair. I didn’t want to see her relying on some random party years from now to fix her place up.”

“And I’ve heard he didn’t take very well to this, is that correct? What happened after that?”

I wanted to say ‘he did what you’ve been doing to me’, but bit back my tongue, not wanting to create more unnecessary drama. “He screamed at me in front of everypony, called me a girl even though I told him about five times not to do that, and then accused me of telling Diamond Tiara and everypony else– everyone else– to go into whatever the heck the Everfree Forest is when I explicitly told them not to go in when they offered it as an idea to find cutie marks.”

“I see,” she replied simply, wearing a little smile, probably at the fact that I used ‘everypony’ by accident. “Well, I did speak to my student Twilight, and her report to me lines up with what you’ve said. Although perhaps you’d find it best to not interfere in the natural order of things?”

“Is your suggestion really that I should stop trying to help ponies lift themselves out of poverty?” I asked. “Because that seems like a very weird suggestion, and a basically impossible one for me to follow.”

“Not exactly,” she said. “I expect you to help ponies– after all, the magic of friendship is more powerful than anything else in Equestria. The more friendship there is, the better off the land is.”

“That sounds unbearably cheesy.”

“I’m only saying make sure to think about what you’re doing, so we don’t have a situation that escalates until it seems out of control, as we do now.”

“I am thinking about what I’m doing. It’s not like I’m just running around and doing whatever. But there’s no way I can control how other ponies react to what I do. I’m already focusing enough on… you know, everything else.”

Her. I was going to say I was already focusing enough on her, but bit back my tongue again. Wouldn’t want to make her mad inadvertently, would I?

“Well, I’m certain a bright young fi– err, colt like you could make sure he’s staying out of trouble, correct? You have claimed to be an adult, after all.”

“Fine… I mean yes, I’ll try and figure out what might make other ponies upset, even if I don’t know who they are and won’t have met them until after I apparently made them mad because they don’t know how to manage their own business so that way they can not lose money from somepony else changing their business strategy a tiny little bit.”

“Asher.”

“What? I will. I’ll try and think even more than I already do before I do anything, I guess.”

“Asher, please don’t have a tone with me, I’m being serious.”

Oh, that remark made me want to scream. I hated how patronizing she was being, but still couldn’t say anything lest I face her anger. I closed my eyes, shook my head, and let out a long breath before saying anything else.

“I will try my best. That is all that I can do. Can I talk to Silver Spoon’s father about helping him with his business? Or is that off limits since Filthy Rich is angry?”

“You… may. But please be careful as you do. I’ll have somepony talk to Mr. Rich about this issue, since he’s quite upset. But wherever you go and whatever you do, act as though somepony might be watching your movements from now on.” With that, she vanished into the air with a glow of her horn.

“I already do,” I thought to myself bitterly as I grumbled to myself. “Lord, why? Why is everypony like this? Why do they all act like I’m intentionally trying to make them upset? Why is this even happening to begin with? Please, I want an answer.”

God gave no apparent answer still, but I wasn’t expecting to receive one anyway. Honestly, I had to admit, I was losing a little bit of faith. Not that God didn’t exist. It was more the idea that he just forgot about me. It was a thought that if I dwelled on too long, I knew I would start to get choked up, but it's what it felt like nonetheless.

“Lord, let your will be your will, and please include me in whatever your will is.”

With that, I laid down to think. Celestia was basically ruling out me getting involved in politics with what she said, but I wasn’t ready to give up on that yet. And Silver Spoon… she said her father could use help with his business and that she would talk to him about me. Doubly so was the fact that she said he didn’t like Filthy Rich. That was a good thing in terms of getting a foot in the door with him. But was it even worth all the effort? Ponies would just get mad at me again and I’d have to do this song and dance all over again. And then Celesita would either yell at me or patronize me, and I didn’t know how much more of that I could take.

I was noticing a theme of me getting two steps forward and one step back. Whatever I did just seemed to make me fall flat on my face every single time and get that princess more riled up. Things were moving unbearably slow, as though God was intentionally trying to make my life more difficult. Or maybe some other random deity like being that existed in this world just hated my guts for no reason, more than even Celestia did.

“At least she corrected herself and called me a man… err, a colt. Whatever. This is all so ridiculous. Why am I even trying to get into politics?”

Stop. I needed to stop that thinking. That thinking was bad and I didn’t want to fall into depression, because that’s where that was leading. I had a plan for what I wanted to do for the future and how to start to change the way things are from the inside, and getting depressed was going to do nothing to help that.

“Yeah, right. I seem to be telling myself to stop this line of thinking a lot. Why should I keep trying to go on if no one seems to care and I’ve just been abandoned here to suffer through all this for seemingly no reason? Especially when nothing I do seems to go anywhere with anyone.”

Okay, that really was enough of that. Scootaloo cared. And so did Silver Spoon. And Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara, too. Lofty and Holiday cared, too, and openly stated that they were willing to put up a fight with their revered princess for my sake. That wasn’t nothing, and was something to hold on to when everything was feeling as hopeless as it was now. I had friends here, and I changed things for the better, at least a little bit, if those girls really fought as much as Holiday and Lofty said. I could keep my head above water. Hopefully.

“God, just give me a sign that… ugh, never mind.” I left my prayer hanging in the air as I left to find Silver Spoon so I could get on with moving forward and trying to help her father with his business. Yeah, I was feeling spiteful. I really didn't care.


“Have you gotten on that filly yet?” Filthy Rich asked, a scowl planted on his face as he spoke with frustration in his voice. “It’s been almost three weeks and nothing’s happened so far.”

“I’ve already explained to you that there’s nothing we can do,” Mayor Mare told him. “She said she didn’t do anything, her friends said they didn’t do anything, and we have no proof on the matter that she ever told anypony to do anything. Honestly, I believe her when she says she told her friends not to go in. She seemed genuinely upset about not being believed, not scared or stuttering like we’d expect from some foal who tells lies. Silver Spoon stuck up for her, too.”

“Just because those ponies stood up for her doesn’t mean that she didn’t do anything! She’s clearly trying to convince them to keep her from getting in trouble! It’s obvious that she’s going after me.”

“With all due respect, Mr. Rich, I do believe you’re overreacting on this matter,” the mayor told him. “She’s just a little filly, and your daughter is okay. Please let this little grudge you seem to hold against her go. Ashley is only nine years old, after all.”

“It doesn't matter how old she is! I know she did this on purpose!” the stallion grumbled, barely avoiding yelling. “I’ll be watching her, know that much, and I hope for Celestia’s sake that you will be too.”

“We’ll keep just as much an eye on her as we have been, but–” She wasn’t able to finish as Filthy Rich was already stopping away in anger. The mayor rolled her eyes and shook her head in annoyance, letting out a breath. Rich always seemed to act like this, almost as bad as Mrs. Rich. At least he could hold his temper better than she could. It didn’t make it less terrible to work with them though.

“Oh, Celestia, this situation is so complicated,” she muttered to herself as she went back to her office and sat at her desk. “That filly is something else. How does she get herself involved in everything like she does?” She didn’t know, but she could safely say it was irritating that it happened. She hoped those two wouldn’t cross paths again.

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