Flashes
Monday Morning
Weekends always felt short. Sunday came and went in the blink, and once again, Sweetie Belle was back at her uncomfortable wooden desk, groggy from being dragged out of bed by her older sister, because she and the girls had stayed up too late crusading again.
They'd invited the new colt but he had politely declined—stating that he wanted to spend the day indoors. Scootaloo had called him a weirdo.
Even though the morning light streaming in through the schoolhouse's windows was warm and cheery, every foal around her carried the same half-tired, half-annoyed look on their faces as they sat there waiting for the school day to start. Even Ms. Cheerilee looked unenthusiastic as she shuffled through the papers on her desk.
Ugh. I miss summer vacation, the filly rested her head on her folded forelegs.
Foals still streamed into the classroom in ones and twos. Sweetie was always early, Rarity hated when she wasn't, and as such, she was always the first of the crusaders to find her seat. Apple Bloom came in next, bearing bags under her eyes and a mistied bow. Scoots followed a few minutes afterward, nodding to her friends and plopping down at her desk with a yawn. Looks like the hedgehog she uses to brush her mane was extra-mad today.
Then Rainbow Dash entered the room, rousing Sweetie’s eyes. There, trailing behind her, was Gabriel, wearing a set of saddlebags over his bandaged middle. The unicorn glanced at Scootaloo, who sank lower in her desk and glowered at her hooves.
Rainbow Dash and Gabriel walked over to Cheerilee, who stood up and greeted them warmly. Sweetie couldn't tell what they were saying from her spot near the back, but her teacher nodded along with whatever Rainbow was saying. Then she said something back and Dash nodded, and then she led them both to a vacant desk in the front row that hadn't been there last week, nearest to hers. She watched Gabriel as he unbuckled his saddlebags with a fumbling hoof, letting them fall to the floor before nudging them underneath the desk.
Rainbow Dash said her goodbyes and trotted out the door, leaving Ms. Cheerilee to talk to Gabriel for a while. By now, most of the other foals had arrived and were watching the new colt with the bored half-interest of those who have nothing better to look at. The last to walk in was Diamond, whose face twisted in disapproval once she spotted the class's newest member. They locked eyes for a bare moment before she rolled hers and trotted over to her normal desk.
A few minutes later the clock ticked to the hour and it was time to start class. Ms. Cheerilee stood up and walked to the front of the room.
"Good morning, everypony!" she announced.
"Good morning, Ms. Cheerilee," came the tired, scripted reply from every foal but Gabriel.
"As you may have noticed, we have a new student with us today!" She looked at Gabriel encouragingly and beckoned with her hoof. He got up out of his chair and walked to the front of the classroom, brushing some of his light green mane out of his eyes. "This is Gabriel, and he's new in town, so I expect you all to be as warm, welcoming, and friendly as I know you can be!"
As she spoke, the little colt looked out over the classroom like he was looking at the cover of a somewhat interesting book. If he cared that many of the other foals began whispering to each other when they heard his name, he didn't show it. "Gabriel, can you tell the class something about yourself?"
"Hi, I'm Gabriel, but you can call me Gabe if you want," he said with a wave. "Uh, I come from really far away."
"Thank you, Gabriel. You may return to your seat."
He nodded at her and quickly did so.
"Okay, class, today we're going to learn about the beginning of the middle period..." Sweetie stuck her tongue out. Gross, history. All around her, foals were making similar expressions. She did her best to pay attention as Ms. Cheerilee began to talk about what long-gone ponies she'd never even meet were doing five hundred years ago.
Her ears perked up when she heard the rustle of paper. Heads turned towards the new foal as he retrieved a notebook from his saddlebags as well as a pencil. He flipped open the notebook and began to write in it not with his mouth, but with his hoof. Contrary to everything she had been taught, the foal stuck the pencil in his fetlock and began carefully tracing out jagged letters one-by-one.
Sweetie couldn't help but stare. That's so slow! Does he not know how to write normally?
Cheerilee began talking about the Griffonian Invasion, which was a relief because that was something everypony knew about. They'd all heard the story. Griffons, as was common knowledge, had lived in the mountain lands to the north for seven hundred years after their ancestors colonized it from the griffon homelands across the ocean.
Five hundred years ago, the evil king decided he wanted a piece of Equestria and invaded. Only by working together were the ponies able to stop the Griffon tribes and push them back into the north, reclaiming all the towns that the evil king had captured, after they had lost, the griffons overthrew him.
It was a story they had all been told before, so Sweetie expected the lesson to be just about as boring as it could possibly be.
She did notice, every so often, that Gabriel would look down and scratch something into his notebook. He ended up writing down a lot. Before she knew it, he had covered a whole page.
Of course, just as Ms. Cheerilee got to the part about the Griffons deposing the bad king, Gabriel raised his hoof. The teacher stopped and blinked, not expecting a question on such a well-known story.
"Yes, Gabe?"
"Were the Griffons united when they invaded Equestria?"
Cheerilee looked surprised for a moment. "Erm, yes, I believe they were."
"Did King Grimmer unite the tribes himself?"
Sweetie couldn't help but roll her eyes at the asinine question. Duh, of course not, everypony knows that he was a bad king. What kind of living-under-a-rock pony didn't know this?
Her teacher blinked again, then smiled at the question. "Why, no, he did not! That was one of his predecessors."
"Thanks." Gabriel went back to writing poorly in his notebook.
"Now then, where were—yes, Gabriel?"
The colt put his hoof down. "Did the griffon tribes stay united after they overthrew their king?"
Sweetie blinked, then shook her head. They definitely did, because Griffonstone was still one kingdom today.
"Actually, they didn't," Ms. Cheerilee said, patiently.
What?
"With no clear heir, the tribes turned on themselves and broke apart. It would take an especially brave and noble leader, King Grover, to unite the tribes two and a half centuries later."
"Hmm. Thanks." Gabe scratched at his notebook some more.
Ms. Cheerilee finished the lesson without any more interruptions, and then it was time for math. "I hope you all did the reading I assigned over the weekend!"
Sweetie groaned as she and every other foal dragged their math book out of their saddlebags and plopped it on their desks. It wasn't that she was bad at math, she was actually just fine at it and often helped her friends with their homework, it was just that learning the math was boring.
It's a good thing nopony ever does those readings. She just goes over it in class anyway, so there's no reason to.
She opened to the geometry portion of the book and waited for her teacher to start.
After opening her own textbook, the pink-maned teacher wrote a weird-looking symbol on the chalkboard and turned around, pointing to the board with a hoof.
"Alright, who can tell me what symbol this is?" The squiggly set of lines rang a bell, but Sweetie couldn't quite place where she had seen it before.
The class was dead silent. She saw a certain dark green colt look around the room before sticking his hoof up. "Yes, Gabriel?"
"Is it called pi?" he asked.
Cheerilee smiled. "Correct! This is the Unicornian letter pi."
Hey, how'd he know that? Sweetie stared at Gabe. He shrugged back.
The teacher fixed a disapproving look upon the class. "Now, I hope you all didn't answer because you were still feeling groggy, that was in the weekend reading."
She wrote the short name next to the squiggly symbol and Gabe wrote down something in his notebook. "We use Pi to help us know things about circles, like how long the outside is, or how much space is inside them."
She drew a big lopsided circle beside pi. "For example, we know that the circumference, or the distance as if you were walking around the outside of the circle, is found like this." Ms. Cheerilee wrote a weird bit of math on the chalkboard.
C = 2 x π x r
"From what we learned last week, we know that this is an equation. Can anypony tell me why we can't solve this equation yet?"
Sweetie scrunched up her muzzle. She thought she knew why, but she didn't want to raise her hoof. What if I'm wrong? I don't wanna look dumb.
Gabe raised his hoof again, but this time, Ms. Cheerilee didn't call on him right away. "Erm... anypony else?" Sweetie swallowed and slowly raised her foreleg in the air. "Yes! Sweetie Belle."
"Um... is it because you can't multiply numbers with letters?"
"Exactly right! Very good, Sweetie!" Sweetie's heart soared. "We can't simply because we don't know what numbers pi and 'r' are standing in for. Now, finding this is fairly simple. We'll look at 'r' before we tackle pi."
The teacher drew a line from the center to the edge of her wobbly circle and wrote 'r' over it. "The distance from the center of a circle to part its outside is called the radius. When we do calculations with the radius, we let 'r' stand in for it because writing 'radius' every time would get annoying. There's a radius for every circle, so in this case, let's say the circle has a radius of four."
She wrote '= 4' next to her 'r'. Sweetie noticed that Gabe didn't write that in his notebook.
"But we can't do our equation yet, because we don't know what to put in for pi. Can anypony tell me?" She looked out over the class. A green hoof raised up. "Let's let somepony else answer this one, Gabriel." The hoof lowered, and nopony spoke up.
"This was in the reading," Cheerilee said, sounding disappointed. Still, no foals raised their hoof, and the teacher sighed. "Alright, Gabriel, what does pi stand for?"
"Pi's an irrational number," he said, sounding as confident as Ms. Cheerilee.
Sweetie tilted her head. What's an irrational number?
"It's the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and it's an infinitely long non-repeating decimal, so it's easier to just approximate it with three-point-one-four, or twenty-two divided by seven if you really like fractions."
Most of Gabriel's answers went straight over Sweetie's head. What's a diameter? How can a number be infinitely long?
Ms. Cheerilee made another, heavier sigh. "That's a little bit beyond the scope of our lesson, but yes. We usually let 3.14 stand in for Pi, but it's actually much, much longer. Ponies know Pi to about the five-hundredth number or so, but some mathematicians say that it goes on forever. For our problems, just think of Pi as 3.14."
She wrote the new equation on the board below the old one: C = 2 x 3.14 x 4
The rest of the lesson went much like the first part. Cheerilee would ask a question and only very rarely would somepony other than Gabe answer. The colt was some kind of math whiz. He knew the answer to every question and could do big multiplications in his head. He calculated the whole first equation without even writing anything down!
After they had figured out the circumferences and areas of what seemed like a hundred circles, recess time finally rolled around. All the foals immediately leapt up as if they'd been electrocuted, completely unrecognizable from the classroom's lethargic, slightly annoyed state of ten minutes ago. Sweetie Belle stood up and walked over to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, intending to follow them to the door.
She was going to wait for Gabe, too, but he walked up to Ms. Cheerilee instead of bolting to the door like every other foal. "Excuse me, prof–, erm, teacher? Can I ask you a few things about the middle period?"
Is he serious? Sweetie almost couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Ms. Cheerilee frowned and tilted her head. "Don't you want to go outside and play?"
"Eh, I could take it or leave it. I'm more curious about this Griffon Invasion. Tell me, were the Northern Ranges colonized by one overseas nation or several?"
Scootaloo stuck her tongue out. "C'mon, girls, let's go. He can catch up if he wants."
The three trotted through the schoolhouse door into the late summer day. The air was warm and comfortable, and overhead, the weather teams were still getting ready for the coming thunderstorm. The trio followed the tail end of the class and walked around the side of the building to the playground, where most of the foals had begun to talk or play. In an unspoken habit, the three fillies found a spot away from the other foals and sat down.
Sweetie Belle coughed. "So..."
"That colt is a real egghead!" Scoots raised an indignant eyebrow. "How'd he know so much about all that math?"
Apple Bloom shrugged. "Maybe they just really like math where he's from?"
"I mean, he just would not stop answering questions! He even read the reading and made us all look bad! Nopony reads the weekend reading!"
"Yeah, that is kinda weird," Sweetie Belle said, "but it was like he didn't know anything about all that Griffon history stuff!"
"Yeah!" Apple Bloom, "that's almost like not knowin' about the princesses! Or apples!" She bit her lip. “He’s weird, and AJ thinks so too.”
“Huh?” Sweetie Belle tilted her head. “What’d she say?”
“She said that he was polite enough, but something about him was…” She furrowed her brow, working to summon the exact memory. “It was when we were walkin’ home from that party. She said–” Apple Bloom puffed up her cheeks and deepened her voice. “‘–There’s somethin’ odd about that colt. He ain’t a liar, but he ain't exactly honest neither.’”
"Yeah, your crush is weird as heck," Scootaloo said, smirking at the unicorn filly. Immediately, Sweetie felt her face grow hot, and she fixed a pointed look on her orange friend.
"Our soon-to-be new member is weird as heck," she insisted.
"Hey, I'm not the one who couldn't keep my eyes off him."
"Yeah," Apple Bloom said, apparently joining in on the fun, "every time Ah looked over you were starin' at the colt."
Sweetie Belle groaned and dropped to her belly, laying her muzzle on the grass and covering her face. "Ugh, I don't have a crush on him!"
"Just sayin'!"
"Can we please not talk about this anymore?"
Her friends eased off, thank Celestia, and they spent the rest of the break debating over what to crusade for after school. Amazingly, Gabriel still hadn't come outside by the time Cheerilee called the class back in. Instead, he greeted them from his desk with a little wave when they reentered the classroom. He did the same for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, which they appeared to find considerably unamusing.
The day went on normally enough. Ms. Cheerilee taught lessons on science and social studies, peppered with weirdly specific questions from Gabe just like during history. The teacher dutifully answered each one, and by the end of the day, every foal was rolling their eyes when that little green hoof went up in the air.
Finally, after what seemed like an often-interrupted eternity, Cheerilee announced the school day officially over and set the foals loose. This time, Gabe packed up like everypony else, tossing his notebook, pencils, and books into his bags and throwing them over his back. Then he trotted up to Sweetie and her friends, who awkwardly greeted him. He didn't seem to care.
"That was weird as hell," he said, not bothering to explain what 'hell' was, "it is so strange to be back in grade school."
The four foals made their way outside with the others into the freedom of an afternoon full of possibilities. "So, Gabe," Apple Bloom said to him as they trotted, giving his name that trademark Apple twang, "we're gonna haf'ta give ya a good 'n proper initi-aytion inta the Crusaders, so–"
"Hey, Gab, wait up!" Diamond's shrill, sarcastic call drew the heads of nearly every foal in front of the schoolyard.
Oh, Celestia, not again. Sweetie's muzzle scrunched as she saw Gabe frown to himself for a moment. Then the brief, annoyed look disappeared and he turned around.
"Oh, what's up Diamond? Feeling persistent today?" he said, friendly as ever. "And it's 'Gabe', by the way."
"My bad, Gab!" Diamond sounded far too sweet as she cantered up to the foursome, trailed, of course, by her gray henchpony. "I just wanted to know why the new colt, of everypony, decided to make everybody else in the class look bad!" Her tone was still sugary enough to make Sweetie's stomach flip in distaste.
Gabriel tilted his head to the side. "What do you mean?"
"I mean how you answered questions nonstop like a self-centered nerd, of course!" Diamond covered her giggle with a hoof. "Why, it made all of us look terrible! You don't have to make everypony around you seem dumb just because you're a little better at math than the rest of the class!"
Sweetie heard a few annoyed agreements and shouts of 'Yeah, what the hay?' from the other foals as they shuffled into a rough circle around the two. Diamond Tiara smiled and raised her head a little higher, bolstered by the small crowd's support.
Sweetie leaned to Scootaloo. "This is gonna get ugly fast if we don't do anything."
Her friend huffed. "He knows how mean DT is. If he didn't want this to happen, he shouldn't have been such a goody-two-shoes for Ms. Cheerilee."
Before Sweetie could speak, Gabe shrugged and responded to Diamond in that perfectly calm and easy tone of his. "Hey, sorry you feel that way. I didn't mean to make you all look bad, I'm just trying to find my footing in class. I don't know everything that you all do."
His verbal assailant snickered. "Well, you don't have to tell us that. Besides math, you didn't know anything! I mean, who doesn't know where Yakyakistan even is?"
Sweetie Belle elected to not mention that she had known of the kingdom's location for approximately one month.
"I didn’t realize that was an important thing to know."
"Oh, you poor thing!" the earth pony mocked, "A colt like you must be, erm, special. Are you sure you didn't get put in our class by mistake?"
"Yep." Gabe's stony exterior seemed uncracked, and his voice sounded lazily friendly, but Sweetie couldn't gleam any idea of what the colt really thought of the one-sided conversation.
"Well in that case, I think–"
"Sorry, Diamond, but I really don't care what you think." To the surprise of nearly every filly and colt surrounding the two, Gabe stuck his hoof in her face, sharply interrupting whatever nasty thing was in the process of falling out of her mouth. "I'm hungry and I haven't eaten since breakfast, so if you don't mind, I'm gonna go find a hay dog stand." Then he turned and began to walk away.
Once Diamond had finished flapping her mouth like a fish, trotted up behind Gabriel, and the whole class moved around them. "Gab Real, don't you know that interrupting another pony while she's speaking is rude?"
"I do, in fact, know that," he replied, staring straight ahead.
"Then you know what happens to rude little foals." Diamond raised a hoof. "They get punished!"
The stuck-up brat slapped her hoof across the back of Gabriel's head hard and instantly got the response she so desperately wanted. Gabe spun around much quicker than Sweetie thought him capable of, and she watched as Diamond's expression snapped from smug satisfaction to stone-cold fear.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
Gabriel had a look in his half-glazed eyes, one that Sweetie had never seen on the face of another pony before in her entire life. It was different from the righteous or indignant anger that she saw on the faces of the heroes and villains in comic books, and it was different from the frenzied fury on her big sister's face when she tracked mud on the rug or that one time she ruined her best fabric.
No, the emotion consuming this colt's entire being instantly turned Sweetie's blood to ice because it was the most cold, absolute, definite rage that she had ever seen, and it scared her so bad that the only feeling that made it through her head was relief that it was not directed at her.
Gabe smashed his hoof straight into Diamond's cheek, snapping her head back and sending her stumbling. She didn't even have time to cry out before he struck her on the side of her head while sweeping his other foreleg against her own, forcing her to topple to the ground. She hit the dirt with flailing legs and a shell-shocked whimper, sending her namesake bouncing away. Without wasting a beat, Gabe reared back on his hind legs, his hoof above one of Diamond's forelegs, outstretched and propped up on the other.
The class gasped.
Sweetie had the presence of mind to choke out "Gabe, no!"
The colt brought his weight down with lightning speed and produced a sickeningly crisp snap.
Diamond's foreleg folded where he had struck it, between the wrist and the elbow, in a way that was so fundamentally wrong that it made Sweetie want to throw up right then and there. Gabe raised his hoof, which left a weeping red crescent in her coat, and blinked at the filly's leg with wide, vacant eyes, not noticing her blood dripping from his hoof―at first. His eyes widened, his pupils shrunk, and his mouth parted with a soft 'oh'.
Barely a few moments had even passed. For a heartbeat, absolutely nothing happened. Nopony said anything. The world stood still. Then Diamond raised her head, took one look at her leg, and began to scream.
A lot of things happened very quickly.
Every foal in the crowd began to shout. Ms. Cheerilee exploded out of the schoolhouse door and sprinted towards the small crowd, which immediately started to scatter. Foals began to make a run for it, some crying, some calling for help. Sweetie felt herself being yanked away from the scene.
She blinked and realized that both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had a foreleg around her neck. "Cmon, Sweetie, we gotta get outta here!" Scootaloo shouted as they stumbled away. "This is gonna be bad!"
Sweetie dumbly nodded and shot one final look at the terrifying colt before she fled with her friends. Gabriel was still standing there, staring at his foreleg as if the entire universe consisted of himself, his hoof, and the blood that ran down its edge.
Once she had gotten the word from the panting courier, Sandy Hills excused herself from her current session as quickly as she possibly could, apologizing profusely and promising another meeting the next day. Then she threw on her saddlebags, dashed out of the Ministry office, and launched herself into the air, flapping as hard as she could manage.
She was no racing pegasus but she thought that she must have been flying pretty damn fast because she arrived at the schoolhouse at the same time as Rainbow Dash. The two glanced at each other, took one look at the little spot of bloodied dirt on the path leading up to the school's front door, and made for the school like their tails were on fire.
They thrust themselves through the front door in a clatter of hooves and a burst of feathers. The sight of a wide-eyed Cheerilee, an absolutely furious Filthy Rich, and a little green pegasus staring at his hoof greeted them. He still had his saddlebags on.
The amber earth pony's head shot up when they entered and snapped towards them, disheveling his mane even more. "Sandy! There had better be an exquisite explanation for why my daughter is with her mother in the hospital right now." he growled at the two with enough aggression to make them both take a step back.
"H-hold on, Rich, we just arrived, we were just told that Gabriel had hurt somepony at the school."
"Yeah, what happened?" Rainbow said, sounding a little defensive.
"Your colt just about snapped my daughter's Celestia-damned leg in half!"
"What?!"
Cheerilee looked at them, talking in a shocked voice. "I-it's true, I saw the aftermath myself. There was... an angle."
"So you had better start talking." Rich snorted and stamped his hoof, looking like he was about to charge.
"Hold on, hold on." Sandy placed herself between Diamond's father and Rainbow, who was beginning to look red-faced. "We just got here, we need to know what exactly happened."
Cheerilee sniffed. "I got the story from one of the colts. Rich's daughter got confrontational with Gabriel after school, apparently implying that he was embarrassing the other foals by asking too many questions during class time and implying that he was 'special'.”
Of course she did, thought Sandy.
“When he faced away from her, Diamond hit him, and he, urm, responded by knocking her down and striking her foreleg. I ran outside the moment I heard your daughter, Rich, and I saw her on the ground, with Gabriel standing over her, looking... well, looking just like this."
She gestured at the colt, who, upon closer examination, seemed not to be staring at his hoof, but at something far, far past it.
"Hold on a minute, it sounds like your little brat hit Gabe first!" Rainbow said as she pushed past the counselor.
"And he breaks her foreleg? What kind of reaction is that?! He took it too far!"
"He was defending himself!"
"She was on the ground! He wasn't in any danger when he snapped her damned leg!"
"Hey!" Sandy placed herself between Rich and Rainbow again. "Rich, we need to have a talk about the kind of colt that Gabriel is."
"What, a psychopath?"
Sandy had to stop herself from smacking the stallion right then and there, snorting aggressively instead. He's just scared for his daughter, he's just scared for his daughter. Instead of responding right away, she turned her head to the teacher.
"Miss Cheerilee, would you please bring Gabriel to the back corner of the room?" she asked curtly. The mare nodded and wrapped a leg around the colt, guiding him as far away from the adults as possible and murmuring to him all the while. Sandy returned her attention to Filthy, giving him the sharpest look she could manage.
"Filthy Rich," she began in a low, pointed voice, "Let me be very clear. Gabriel was found on the edge of Ponyville in a state of near-death Wednesday morning. He was rushed to the hospital and barely saved. When we searched for him on the records, we found nothing. Any person that has cared for him in his past is dead or gone, and we believe he barely escaped from foal-traffickers."
"I–, what?" The rage on the stallion's face mixed with hesitant surprise.
Sandy took another step closer. "Let me be clear. I am not saying that what he did was okay. It absolutely isn't, and it will be up to Gabe to make this right, but you need to understand, that colt over there is terribly damaged. We have reason to believe that he was stolen from his real family at a very young age and raised by non-ponies, possibly in captivity. He avoids appearing like a foal at any cost and is terrified of loud noises. If he lashed out, I believe it's because it was instinctive, borne from a demanding, violent life. I assure you, Rich, that his actions, however intense, were in self-defense and were not intentionally cruel."
"I, um–"
"Now, I understand your fear for Diamond. I can't imagine learning that your only foal was unexpectedly hurt and taken to the hospital, but I need for you to understand that this colt is heavily traumatized, and if he was provoked then he effectively had no control over his actions."
Rich was silent for several moments. He stared into Sandy's eyes. She didn't back down. "I... I see," he growled. "It seems that we have an extremely unfortunate accident on our hooves."
"Agreed," Sandy nodded, "and, if anypony is to blame, it's me. I was the one who approved him for schooling so quickly. I did not know that he had violent tendencies to this extent, though, it's likely a signifier of a history of conflict. So, Mr. Rich, I apologize. If I had known, I would have made sure that Cheerilee would have been better equipped to stop it from happening in the first place."
The amber stallion nodded. "Thank you." His face didn't soften one bit, but he no longer looked as if he was about to explode. "I expect this to be prevented in the future. I am not unreasonable, and I haven't forgotten what you've done for our daughter, so we won't press charges due to his... history. But," he said with a stomp of his hoof, "it would be absolutely inexcusable to allow it to happen again."
Sandy dared to take a breath and prayed the stallion couldn't hear how shaky it was. "Of course, Rich. Thanks for being understanding."
"You are welcome. Now, if you don't need me for anything else, good day." He dragged his hoof over his mane in a futile attempt to smooth it out and trotted out the schoolhouse door.
The moment it closed, all the air rushed out of Sandy Hills' body. Rainbow blinked and rubbed her head. "Holy Celestia," she muttered, "that was intense."
Sandy took another deep breath. There were more important things to deal with than reeling right now. "Come on," she said, making for the corner where Cheerilee and Gabe were sitting.
"...Gabriel?" Sandy said as calmly as she could manage. Her hooves were still shaking after the confrontation. "Gabriel, can you tell me what happened?"
He continued staring at his hoof.
Rainbow walked next to him and sat down, putting a wing over his shoulders. "Kid? Can you talk to us? We're worried about you."
He opened his mouth and moved it, but no words came out.
"What was that?" asked Sandy as gently as she could.
"I really hurt her." It was a statement. His voice was hollow, empty. Completely emotionless. Sandy blinked and swallowed.
"Yes, I'm afraid you did."
"I broke her leg. I made her bleed."
"Yes."
"I broke a little kid's leg and made her cry. Not s'posed to happen." Nopony had a response to that. The adults looked at one another while the colt before them continued to mumble. "What the fuck is wrong with me?" Each word crept out like it was forced, heavy with regret.
"Gabriel," managed Sandy, "what happened when Diamond hit you?"
"I, uh–..." he blinked and gaped for a moment. "I didn't–... It was like I..." He took a shuddering breath, but his eyes stayed dry. "It... was like..." Sandy saw Rainbow's hug grow tighter.
"Do you remember hurting Diamond?"
He nodded, staring for a while before he spoke. "...I was satisfied, because I, uh... knew she wouldn't try it again. Then I, uh," he gulped, "then I realized what I did."
Oh, Celestia.
The summer sun shone brightly through the windows. "Gabriel," Sandy ventured, wondering if her next question would be wise to ask, "have you had to hurt others before?"
A long silence passed.
"Worse," he said, very simply.
Cheerilee gasped. Sandy Hills took a slow, shuddering breath. Rainbow Dash hesitated, then wrapped the colt in her hooves and squeezed him tight, scooping him up in her forelegs. Her wings lifted them off the ground. "C'mon, kid," she said in a low, gravelly voice. "Let's go home."
The next day, Gabe didn't go to school. He didn't leave his room. He left his drawing things out in the foyer of the cloudominium, wrapping himself in his sheets and sitting in his bed next to Tank instead.
Rainbow Dash made sure he ate breakfast before she left for work, but it didn't feel like enough. She wanted to be there for him, just so he could have somebody to talk to, so he wouldn't have to be alone, but the imminent storm demanded attention, and the weather team was already stretched thin for ponies. The best Rainbow could do was a short morning shift and a promise to make up the hours.
The pegasus worried the whole time she wrangled storm clouds, punching her frustration and anxiety into the angry gray clouds being used to construct the thunderstorm. The shift couldn't have passed any slower, and when her time was up, she clocked out as quick as she could manage and bolted home fast enough to feel her wings scream.
The kid's drawing stuff hadn't been touched. Rainbow threw her goggles on their hook and trotted upstairs to Gabe's room, but she hesitated outside the door. After a few seconds of thought, the pegasus gently rapped her hoof on the wood and pushed it open a hair.
"Uh, kid? Are you there? Can I come in?" No response. "If you don't say anything, I'm gonna come in there, so you better not be doing something real embarrassing!"
Complete silence met her joking tone. Rainbow's frown deepened and she pushed open the door.
The room was still as sparse and barren as the day the colt had moved in. The blinds were drawn and there were no posters on the walls, no toys scattered around the floor. It just wasn't right for a foal's room. Rainbow bit her lip and trotted towards the lump under the blankets of Gabe's bed.
"Kid?" The lump still didn't move. "You asleep?" Darn it, what am I supposed to do? the pegasus did her best to imagine that her mother was here. Her old mare always had a way with foals.
A quiet 'mmph' came from the bed, muffled by the covers. Rainbow took a deep breath and hopped onto the bed next to him, settling down with her legs beneath her. Tank raised his wrinkled head and inspected the disturbance before laying it right back down.
"Hey, kiddo... you can talk to me."
"...stop doing that."
She blinked. "What do you mean, bud?"
"I mean that." The voice coming from the blanketed lump sounded... disappointed? Sad... but mostly tired. "Maybe you shouldn't call me a kid, because I'm not."
Well, it sure didn't sound like that was the case. Rainbow's eyebrows furrowed. "Uh, what do you mean, Gabe?"
The lump under the covers didn't respond, and for a few moments Rainbow thought that she had said something wrong or overstepped some unseen boundary, but then the comforter shifted and a little green head poked halfway out of the sheets. His mane was even messier than usual and deep bags hung under his eyes. He looked up at her for a long, uncomfortable moment, then sighed and dropped his chin to the mattress.
"I mean... It's been fun and all pretending to be twelve, but..." He hesitated, shifting around underneath the covers. "That thing with the little filly, I can't ignore the fact that I'm still capable of... doing things like that.” He groaned. “I don’t know. I guess I thought that maybe because I didn’t have to anymore… Ugh. I dunno. I thought I'd get better. I thought I'd be fucking normal again." He snorted. "Silly me."
The kid spoke in riddles. It felt like he was dancing around something he wanted to say, but something else was stopping him. Plus, pretending to be twelve? What in the hay?
“Uh, what do you mean, ‘pretending?’”
He scrunched up his face. “I mean I wouldn’t consider myself a real child.”
I have no clue what that means, but… I guess he grew up a whole lot faster than he should have.
She watched Tank crawl across the bed and lay down next to Gabe’s muzzle, nuzzling him at a snail’s pace. "So, uh, what are you really?" It took real self-control not to add 'kid' to the end of her question.
Gabe looked up at her. "Someone who doesn't belong here, Rainbow. You all have something nice here and I want to be part of it, I really do, I think that’s not supposed to happen. I can't ignore the fact that I just maimed a little kid.”
"It wasn't your–"
"It was," Gabe snapped at Rainbow. She couldn't help but take a step back. "I should have been better, I—I shouldn't have messed with her. I knew that she'd be stupid. I just didn't think..." He groaned and held his head in his hooves. "It's on me. It has to be. She's just a kid, for fuck's sake."
She struggled to find words. "Gabe..."
He sighed. “I wanna be a good pony, like you, but I think that no matter how hard I try I’m only gonna mess up the way things should be. The hard truth is that... is that I don't belong here."
The pegasus mare waited for a moment, then snorted. "Gabe, I’ll be honest, I’m really confused and most of that went right over my head, but even I can tell that’s bull."
He blinked and looked up at her. "What?"
"All that crap about not belonging here. It's completely honky," she said with a smirk.
His face fell and Rainbow knew she had taken a wrong turn. "You don't believe me."
Uh-oh. Think fast, Rainbow. "I-I do believe ya. I believe you came from a really rotten place, one that didn't give you the chance that you deserved, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to live here." The pegasus produced what she hoped was an encouraging smile. "Ponyville's, like, the most welcoming place in Equestria. We want you to be happy, dude. Nopony's trying to kick you out."
The colt thought to himself for a second, his mouth set in a thin line. "So why am I here, then, being given a second chance? I don't even know if it's a good idea to take it."
Rainbow shrugged and put on her most confident smile. "I try to leave that kind of thinking to big, important eggheads like Twilight."
"...so what?"
"So go with it. Give being a normal kid a shot. Make the most of it, I'd say." She snickered. "Celestia knows, if I was a foal again, I'd do a lot of stuff differently."
Gabriel looked down at his hooves, folding them over one another. "What do I do?"
"Dude, are you for real?" Rainbow couldn't help but laugh. "You got no responsibilities! You're a kid! Hang out with your friends, mess around, maybe get into a little trouble, whatever! You can do whatever you want."
"Whatever I want?" He bit his lip again and set his chin down on the bed. "But... I really hurt that filly, Dash. That's not okay."
"Ah... Yeah, you did." Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck. "Which is why we're gonna have to make sure it doesn't happen again. It's also why Sandy is coming by in a bit to bring us to their place to apologize. "
"Oh. Yeah. I guess that's a good idea, huh?"
"Well, you can't hide under the covers feelin’ sorry for yourself forever. Gotta get back at it." She scooted closer to the lump, pressing her side up against it. "Listen, uh, I don't know what made you freak out so bad, but nopony's like that without having a pretty good reason, and it seems like you didn’t really get to choose what to do when she hit you."
He didn't respond.
"I know you're, uh, not ready to talk about that stuff, so just know that I'm willin' to listen, for when you're ready." Still nothing. "Alright?"
He gave one tiny, pathetic nod and a mutter.
"I didn't hear you, kiddo."
"Alright," he said, louder and somewhat begrudgingly.
That put a smile on Rainbow's face and she bumped him with the edge of her wing. "That's better. Now, dude, you’ve moped around all day and it's time to clean up. We both smell terrible. C’mon, I’ll even let you use the shower first."
The Rich family home was pretty damn impressive, all bright brick and thick wooden beams. The three-story mansion stood tall, with well-trimmed ivy scrabbling around its roots and big, imposing windows smattering its front. Even in the warm light of the mid-afternoon, the front entrance made for an intimidating place to stand.
Sandy Hills gently nudged the little colt before her with a hoof, motioning towards the doorbell. "Go on, Gabriel," she said, her voice gentle, but with a firm quality that let Gabe know didn't have too much choice in this particular matter, "the doorbell's right there." He looked back up at her with that strange gaze of his but didn't speak.
"We know it's gonna be awkward," Rainbow Dash said, "but we'll be right here the whole time. You can do it."
It wasn't the first time that the tan-and-brown pegasus mare had stood before the massive mahogany doors. After the incident, Sandy was taking no chances; she had made sure that it would be okay for this little apology party to go down in the first place. The little green colt straightened his neck and walked up to press the little white button beside the expensive entryway with a hoof. The muffled sound of bells came through the doors.
A minute later they produced the sound of a deadbolt being turned and swung open to reveal Mr. Rich. It took an extra second to spot his daughter, who huddled behind him. He fixed a hard look on Gabe before nodding at the two adults flanking the colt. "Sandy Hills, Rainbow Dash… Gabriel."
Then he turned back towards his little filly, and his voice softened a great deal. "It'll be okay, dear, I promise."
Diamond wordlessly glanced up at her father, then swallowed and hobbled out from behind him. A nasty purple bruise marred her little cheek, her tiara was missing, and a blank white cast encased her foreleg, making it look not unlike Gabriel's had only a few days ago. She carried her head low, and her eyes kept darting to the stallion beside her.
Sandy coughed and nudged the little green foal again, a little firmer this time. "Gabriel, do you have something to say?"
He blinked himself out of a wide-eyed stare and cleared his throat. "Um. Diamond, I um. I wanted to say that I'm really sorry for breaking your leg." He winced as he said it. "I shouldn't have antagonized you. I didn't mean to hurt you. That was wrong. So. I'm sorry." He lowered his head. His voice was so shaky, so different from its usual confident, calm tone.
Diamond Tiara swallowed and rubbed her cast, looking left and right before giving a tiny nod, then looked up at her father for a second, who only raised his eyebrow. "I-I'm sorry, too," she said, her voice almost inaudible, "...for hitting you, I mean."
Nothing more was said. I think that's the best that we're gonna get, Sandy sighed internally. She hadn't expected Diamond to forgive him right away, but she could tell that this was going to take a long time for them to get over.
Rich apparently agreed. "Thank you, Gabriel," he said in a very stern but not unfair voice. "That was very mature of you. I expect this to never happen again."
The little foal met the stallion's gaze. "No, sir. Never," the colt said with a bit more strength in his voice. "I won't let it. I promise."
"Good to hear. Now, if you'll excuse us..." Diamond retreated back into her home, looking relieved, and Rich gave them all another curt nod before shutting the door, leaving the three standing on the porch.
"Wow," said Rainbow as she eyed the doors, her voice low, "I've never seen her like that before."
Sandy turned to Gabe, kneeling down to look him in the eyes. "That was very good, Gabe. It was a nice first step, and I'm sure that with enough time, you'll be able to make it up to her, but that's all you can do for now, okay?"
He nodded, picking at the stone porch with his hoof. "Yeah..."
Sandy smiled. "Now, I stopped by the schoolhouse to pick up the materials you missed today." She bent and retrieved a few sheets of paper from her saddlebags and gave them to Gabe, who lay them down and began looking through them with a hoof. "You'll have to catch up on your reading and finish those worksheets so you'll be ready for tomorrow."
Rainbow coughed. "Sounds like we better get home, kid."
"Yeah." He scooped the papers up and climbed onto Rainbow's back, who gave him a grin.
"So, when're we gonna start on your flying lessons?"
"Uh..."
Sandy laughed a little at the surprise on his face. She couldn't help herself! It was like the idea of flying sounded alien to the little pegasus. It was as absurd as it was sorrowful.
"Alright, you two. I'll see you Friday!"
"Later, Sandy," Rainbow said, "thanks for setting this up."
"Yeah," said Gabe, his voice barely above a whisper. "...right thing to do."
"I was happy to." She returned Gabe's little wave and the two were off. Sandy watched them ascend before adjusting her saddlebags and trotting off. After all, she didn't have to fly anywhere, and it was a nice day. No need to rush.
The counselor started off down the road feeling energized and confident. This incident had been bad, yes, and development in Gabriel's past was a dark one, but she truly believed that, together, they could tackle it. With closer supervision and a generous helping of therapy sessions, the colt was truly capable of coming out of that shell of his and fitting in. He had a long, happy life ahead of him in Ponyville, she just knew it.
After all, the worst was behind them now.
Two days later, under a certain princess's calm, clear night sky, Celestia's protégé fell into her writing desk's chair with an unkempt mane and large, dark bags under her eyes. She levitated out an inkpot and quill from a drawer with a yawn and smoothed out the parchment that had been lying on the wooden surface, waiting for its time to come. Tired eyes watched the pen wet its nib and float over to the paper, hesitate, and spring into action.
Dear Princess Celestia, it scrawled in neat, careful lettering, I've finished with the materials you sent me, and I believe I have a thorough understanding of the history, use, and troubles of soul magic...
P.S.
Happy April 1, everybody.
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First
warm and cheery, very foal around her carried ...
I had to reread that sentence a few times... It should be "every" not "very"
Damn, that was an intense chapter.
>The footnote
Ahh, he bitched out on revealing his stuff.
That note makes it seem like this chapter wasn't canon, but I think it was. Also, that sounds like an Iron Giant reference.
I admit that picture made me almost choke on air when I got it... How dare you, I nearly died!
I demand another chapter as recompense for this heinous crime!!
All that unbridled rage.
Dannnnng.
Yikes, even with the antagonizing, Diamond didn’t deserve something like that. I can tell the scene is written well because I can’t place blame on anyone, not even Sandy. How easy it would have been to ask him if he’s ever hurt anyone before, but I’m assuming she didn’t feel the need to.
Or maybe she was like me and wanted to see him go despite the risk and the obvious signs of PTSD that only we can see.
... Well that went from zero to hundred real bucking fast.
What the gun for? I wonder what got him to go so vicious on DT, was it just because he knew knew to fight and somehow expected the same from her or was it because his foal impulses got the better of him?
It seems Gabe has the ability to go into "the mode" and unleash the inner killer that ponies do not have. This was very likely a VERY good experience for Diamond Tiara. There will always be that little voice in her head warning her of what could happen if she takes things too far. It might not stop her from being a bully, but she should be much more careful about it and will be far less likely to lay a hoof on a pony.
This could distance Gabe farther from the other fillies and colts though. He went from being an annoying weird egghead to an annoying weird egghead capable of brutal violence. I expect the temperature of the room to drop 10 degrees when he enters it.
.....that pun was terrible and I love it.
Welp, at least DT shouldn't be a problem anymore! That counts for something, right? Too bad now he'll probably have a brutal reputation. Will Sweetie's love pull through the trauma? Next time, on WASLC!
Very, very emotional chapter. You could feel it from Gabe.
that took an unexpected and explosively violent turn.... but that is a symptom of PTSD... poor gabe...
Another great chapter, made me want to up vote it again. Also that last image made me laugh so thanks for that.
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Watch the guards in an episode. Grabbing a dozen humans and handing them a spear would make a better fighting force. (1 spear). I don't think Equestria has any vets suffering PTSD; it's just not something they have to worry about. Problems are solved two main ways; a princess or the elements. I don't think their planet has wars like we do.
WW1 was still (sorta) a gentleman's war. At Christmas lines were crossed and soldiers on both sides celebrated together. In today's time? We would kill each other like caged animals...
I think you meant father here rather than daughter.
Oh-oh, we are finding out how Gabe arrived in Equus.
Also, i see that it was confirmed that Gabe was leaving out important parts about his past on purpose so he can just fit in and potentially live a happy life. It makes it even more sad, like what kind of shit happen in his previous life for him to be like this.
Great chapter and a little peek at Gabriel's past. Btw over 150 readers at one, wow...
That April Fools image...
We got a firecracker here!
I was never that great with geometry but, either the "five" should be four or the two "4's" should be 5's. Unless in this Equestria there numerals are different than ours.
Daughter? You probably meant "father".
Awesome picture!
Best to keep him clean and well oiled 
yup she gonna be scared of him now, and that itself is going to cause future problems
Stop teasing me on him coming out of the human closet!
That being said, I love how quickly that escalated. Almost came out of nowhere, but still felt natural based on everything we know so far.
Gotta love the power of omitting details!
That pun at the end is too good not to make it the cover pic for the remainder of April Fools.
Honestly, the fact that Sweetie unknowingly has a crush on an adult is kinda weird, and I hope it's addressed.
I think she either misspoke, misswrote, or the DM forgot what numbers he was having his little ponies use.
Should be Diamond's father.
That ending sure is ominous.
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I think it's a colt pistol.
Also nice chapter. I would like another!
hey, that colt is reliable! bet you can prevent a lot of BS if you use it on the bad guys
goodnight girl i see you tomorrow
that is a pretty strange colt you got there...
Also, while a bit extreme, looks like Diamond Tiara got one hell of a reality check right there.
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Whoops. Fixed.
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awesome chapter, id say dimond had it coming. i don't feel sorry for that little spoil'd brat one bit and i hope silver sees what could happen when someone fight's back.
with all the little comment's from gabe its getting ever more interesting to se from what kind of world he come's.
lets hope celestia doesn't mess this up.
I mean, at this point, Gabriel's alleged, dark backstory is going to be moving up the chain, right?
No way in hell the authorities is just going to let that sleeping dog lie.
Ok, I'll admit, that image got a laugh out of me.
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It's a colt 1911, probably 45 acp but they make them in 9mm and 10mm too. And his reaction is justified since its obvious hes from a place where he was either a warrior/soldier and fighting in horrible conditions had become normal for him where reacting to physical harm had to be dealt with swiftly or risk dying himself.
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WW1 a gentleman’s war? Well, maybe until late 1915 and, perhaps in some places, early 1916. After that, the only rules were kill or be killed. Everything and everyone was fair game and all distinctions between civilian and soldier went right out the window. Atrocities of a magnitude and number the likes of which had never before been seen on this earth, until then, became commonplace.
Why? Because by 1916, too much blood had been spilled, everybody on both sides had lost too many friends and loved ones. Keep in mind, those same allied soldiers who shook hands with the Germans on the night of the Christmas Truce in 1914, experienced the horrors of poison gas when it was used by the central powers for the first time in 1915. No one was feeling particularly chummy after that.
It’s funny actually. The same Germans who used poison gas claimed that the shotguns the American soldiers carried, lovingly called “Trench Brooms” and “Trench Sweepers” for “cleaning up” the German forces, were inhumane.
Wonder what this guy went through?
looks at author's notes
U 'avin' a giggle, m8?
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Ba dum tsss
(Well... I think everypony handled that as well as could be expected. I mean, AFTER the leg break. Interesting what A.J.'s picked up on, not quite lying but not quite being honest, indeed. Also, ominous ending thoughts from Sandy there, only to be immediately followed by Twilight Sparkle's notes... very ominous.
Now... Gabe hurt a child and made her bleed. He feels very badly about that, as he should... even though my cold heart has exceptionally little sympathy for those who pick fights, and then learn that they got much more than they could handle from it. With that said, hopefully this will be good for her. Teach her something about picking fights, and how if you misjudge your victim, it can backfire in the worst ways for you.)
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At least he didn't throw her down a well.
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That would’ve been funny. Horrifying, but funny.
I love-hate you for that picture pun at the end and nice chapter.
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(I still think that the 'bully to well' plan of action, is underappreciated in it's time!
I mean, really, who DOESN'T want to see Diamond Tiara in a well?)
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The likes of which we don't understand.
I remember reading an article sometime around 2010. "A man a day" i think the name was. In it was a research that said that the Middle East was so traumatizing that every day one american soldier (whether active or not) would kill themselves.
I think it was WW1 that the British finally learned to not march in rows. Imagine it; a row of red coats cresting a hill only to be cut down in seconds by machine gun fire. I don't think it took a week for tactics to change.
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As my first decree as princess of Anxiety, the filly known as Diamond Tiara is to be thrown into a well.
soul magic? this is gonna be interesting.