Chapter 23
Runaway Train
“What?” Heartbreak asked glaring at Rarity.
Rarity smiled. “I knew you could do it.”
Heartbreak’s left eye started to twitch. “Oh... oh no. No!”
Rarity took a long sip of her drink. “I’m afraid so. I wanted this little trip of ours to be more than just, ‘going to an auction and seeing if we can get you a house,’ you know. After all, a part of any good journey is meeting new ponies and even making some,” she paused, “Friends?”
Heartbreak started to rub her forehead. “So all that fluster! You leaving in a huff after I insulted you, was a ruse?!”
Rarity frowned. “Well, no, I was genuinely hurt by that remark, however if we are going to be together for the entirety of this month then I think I should let go of some of your more biting quips,” she replied her expression turning bemused. “But I saw a chance for you to improve upon something and I took it.”
Heartbreak’s eye continued to twitch, she opened her mouth to say something and then stopped. Finally she crossed her arms. “And by doing so, you’ve tainting whatever it was that you were trying to accomplish.”
“It got you talking to a pony that you might have not talked to otherwise, didn’t?” Rarity frowned. “The means justified the ends, darling!”
Heartbreak frowned and rubbed her temples.“You’re overdoing the, ‘darlings,’ again, Rarity. ” she replied. “I think it could have been done in a different way. If it needed to be done at all!”
“And if I had just let you sit here what would you have done?” Rarity asked, looking at Heartbreak in the eyes. She blinked, in the sunlight those eyes seemed to almost sparkle like diamonds or stars... “Shame they are being offset by such an angry face...” She shook her head and refocused on the conversation.
“I would have done what any normal p-pony would have done after offending another p-pony! Sat quietly and thought about what they had just done and what they could have done differently in that situation, so that -maybe, just maybe- they could have thought of a good apology later on!” Heartbreak said fumingly.
“And would you have had that conversation with, what was her name again? Starcatcher? Star-” Rarity began.
“Starchaser! Maybe! She is going to be in Ponyville after all! But now we’ll never know, Rarity! We’ll never know if I would have had that conversation because you pressed my buttons and I did what I did out of spite, or because I genuinely wanted to!” Heartbreak took a deep breath. “Rarity. I’m going to rant. Do you mind if I rant? Cause I feel the need to rant. You have put me in the mood to fffff-” she cut herself off short. “Ugh! You have put me in the mood to rant. So I am going to rant, alright?”
Rarity blinked. “If you must...”
“Yes, yes I must.” Heartbreak seethed and looked thoughtful. “No offense to you or the girls, but seriously: But do you have any lesson plan in this? Because it feels like you’re making all this up as you’re going along! First, you want to give me a dress, then you want to give me a makeover, then we get along for a short period of time! But then you keep insisting that I have to, ‘look my best,’ keep insisting that I need to go to the spa, and then...Ugh! Look at me! I am so frustrated by all this I can hardly speak!”
Rarity took another sip of her drink. “Does that mean that you are finished with this little outburst of yours?”
Heartbreak glared at Rarity. “No! No, it does not mean that I am done! Gah! Rarity, Spike thinks I’m a jerk because of what just happened! The potential run in with Starchaser will have me questioning whether or not I am talking to her because I actually want to talk to her or because I still want to spite you! And then you have the audacity to come back in here telling me that you masterminded me having a conversation with a random pony that I don’t know?!” She rubbed her head. “That you only said what you said because you knew that I would do what you wanted me to out of spite?!”
“Well, it worked, didn’t it?”
Heartbreak rolled her eyes and let out a groan. “It worked?! It worked?! I just had a conversation with a p-p-pony that I don’t know, who might be nice and all, but out of all the ponies in Equestria, happened to be one of those ponies who just happened to be in Canterlot on the day of my arrival!” Her left hoof banged down on the table.
“Wait, she was?” Rarity asked slightly surprised. “Darling, how is that a bad thing?”
“Because!” Heartbreak’s hooves took on a more animated pose, quickly moving from left to right. “Remember when I, ‘borrowed,’ that bike?”
“If I recall correctly you stole it-” Rarity stopped as she received a harsh look from Heartbreak. “-But do go on...”
“Right! It turns out that that little event caused quite the scene in Canterlot! And Starchaser happened to be there when I was zooming down one of sidewalks! I nearly clipped her wings off!” Heartbreak explained growing exasperated.
Stunned, Rarity shook her head. “Really?!”
“Really! Yes, what are the odds!?” Heartbreak threw up her hooves.
“You did apologize to her for that, didn’t you?” Rarity asked.
“What?! No! The reason she is moving from Canterlot to Ponyville is because of me! If I tell her that... it’ll just make things fetting awkward anytime I see her...” Heartbreak said bitterly.
Rarity raised her eyebrows. “Then you do plan on seeing her in the future?”
==============================================================
I rub my temples. Fuck. I have been played like a violin, again! First it was Twilight, now Rarity!? Am I really this gullible? Or are my buttons just this easy to press?
“I’m not sure if that is a good idea or not at the moment, Rarity.” I reply. Crap, how the fet... no, there is no way that you could have foreseen that she just happened to be there when you got to Canterlot! I am sure there are lots of ponies that were there that you want to avoid! The guy whose bike you stole! A dozen different strangers who you tumbled into! Even the owner of that fruit and pie stand might be good to avoid.
Rarity looks at me with a serious-semi-sympathetic expression. “But from what I saw, the two of you were getting along rather swimmingly, what could have happened that would make it so-”
“She was there the day that you girls dragged my aaa-fffflank!,” Stupid censorship! “My flank to Canterlot!”
“Darling, you’ve already pointed that out,” Rarity says confused.
“Ugh! I know that I have! You’re not getting it, Rarity!” I can’t believe I have to explain this. “Do I need diagrams? If she knows that it was me that nearly clipped her wings, and she’s moving from Pony- I mean, from Canterlot to Ponyville because of me, then what’s going to happen if she finds out that it was me that nearly clipped her wings?!”
Rarity tilts her head and blinks in confusion before shaking her head. “Darling, I’m not sure if the expression, ‘making mountains out of molehills,’ has any meaning to Minneigh-”
“I am not making something out of nothing trivial!” ARGH! Why doesn’t she get this!
She frowns and rolls her eyes. A, ‘tsk,’ coming from her mouth, Rarity’s voice takes on a tone I rarely hear: Sarcastic. “Then the worst possible thing happens, the two of you have a conversation in which you talk out the misunderstandings and then you might,” she mock gasps, “apologize to her!”
I slam my left hoof on the table. “It’s. Not. That. Simple, Rarity! Better yet, what happens when she finds out that the only reason I started talking to her was just to spite you!?”
Rarity taps her hoof on the table. “Careful, H.B. To someponies it might sound like you actually care about this pony’s feelings...”
I feel the urge to bite my lip, pull my hair and scream starting to rise. Fuck, this is just like arguing with someone on the internet, and even there I would tend to let people play me! Oh, look here’s an argument I can be apart of! They’re arguing with me, and then I’m arguing back! They keep holding to the same point and there’s some burden shifting! Ugh! I feel so - so - so!
“Gurrrrrrgle,” Goes my stomach. Hungry, that's how I feel. I didn’t have much of a breakfast and I’m getting hungry.
“That’s it. I’m not doing this. For the sake of my sanity, whatever rapport I have with Spike and my stomach? I’m opting out of this argument,” I begin to get up.
“I am going to point out that you were the one that began this, ‘argument,’” Rarity replies. I just shake my head and fight the urge to snarl. She reaches out with a hoof and in an attempt to keep me from leaving, touches my arm. “I was just trying to do something that I thought was for your own good...”
“For your own good.”
Those. Words.
I don’t have to describe the rage, unbridled fury, bitterness and just plain old anger those four words bring me. Fixating on them isn’t going to do me any good and neither is staying here. I need a cool off. I need food. I have low blood sugar and I don’t want to argue with this pony anymore. I shouldn’t say anything, I don’t want to say anything but the bile is nearly causing me to choke.
“That’s what you’re trying to teach me here, Rarity? Get up, get out, talk to more p-p-ponies? You could have just said that instead of trying to orchestrate some elaborate ruse,” Getting up, I pick my saddlebags on in an awkward manner. “‘Cause seriously, I thought that you were meant to be teaching me about generosity.” I walk to the door. That’s all I should say. That’s everything that needs to be said. My hoof pauses over the push button on the door and I linger. Damn it, I’ve said what I need to say, that’s enou- “I guess those who can’t do, really do teach...” I mutter under my breath as my hoof taps the square button.
Fuck! I seriously hope that she didn’t hear that! Come on, mouth! What the hell!? The door slides open and I try to scoot out of it as quickly as I can.
The door snaps back shut while glowing with a sparkling lavender blue. Fuck. Rarity gets up from the table and gives me a harsh glare. I can almost feel my mane and tail droop. Fuck. Yup, she heard me.
“And just what does that mean?” She asks pointedly. Crap, I don’t want to answer that. The door continues to glow with a soft magical light and doesn’t show any signs of stopping. “Well?”
Fuck, do I have to bite a bullet here? I feel my nose scrunch up. “Nothing.”
“Then why did you say it?” Rarity asks.
I don’t turn around, all these ponies are fucking scary when they’re upset. Course the only thing worse than them is the frothing throngs of fan-boys who would come to Rarity’s aid screaming over the fact that I just insulted their, ‘wafu,’ or, ‘best pony,’ or any other choice names that they want to tag to Rarity.
“Look, I was just being stupid and didn’t mean it. I app-” I begin.
“Ah, ah, ah! No, you are not getting out of this that easily,” Her tone is sharp and cutting. “I don’t disagree with the first part of your half-hearted apology, but the second half that you are about to say? You meant something by that. Now, young filly, explain yourself.”
“Please, just let me-” Suddenly I feel a weird fuzzy feeling around me. It’s familiar, it’s - shit, she has me in her magic and I feel myself quickly turned around. The look on Rarity’s face is a cold collected seething hurt thing. The fuzzy glow fades.
“Not until you have explained what you meant by that little quip,” she snorts.
I try leaning back on the door and quietly tapping the button in a vain hope that it will open and I can get out of this. But no, Rarity’s horn is still aglow and I am stuck to explain myself. I can feel a throwback from my childhood revisiting my mind as a small panic attack grows. Pretty soon it threatens to break free as Rarity narrows her eyes at me. Finally, I can’t take it anymore.
“Fetlocks, Rarity! I’ll explain, but please back off!” I sound like an angry whining little child. She backs away but her horn is still glowing. Have I mentioned that I really don’t like unicorn magic?
“Fine,” Her brow is still furrowed.
I try to relax but find myself shaking. My fear is starting to mingle with anger over being manhandled like that. I take a deep breath. “You want an honest answer?” Fuck, I feel like I’ve been over this before. It’s just like with Applejack and a little bit like Twilight. I really hope this doesn’t degrade into a pattern with the rest of the mane six, I seriously don’t need to bring them all to their boiling points just to learn some stupid lesson. “Fine!”
As a spike of anger hits me, I swear I see Rarity flinch.
“What I meant is that sometimes you aren’t the best pony to come to learn about generosity,” I keep wanting to bite my tongue here. But with Rarity pushing me? That dam that I have been attempting to build because of what happened with Applejack is crumbling. Not that I did much to build on it anyway...
The frown returns back to Rarity’s face. “And whatever do you mean by that?! I am the most generous pony in all of Equestria!”
==============================================================
“Rarity, there are times and moments that actively dispute that claim-” Heartbreak said running her hooves through the back of her mane.
“Discord doesn’t count!” Rarity protested. “Ha! I bet she didn’t expect that!”
“I’m not talking about Discord! There are countless little moments that, while in the end you did learn your lesson about something, showed that you have a selfish sort of generosity!” Heartbreak replied shaking her hooves.
Rarity’s head turned and she, ‘humphed.’ “As if! Name just one instance where I wasn’t generous!”
“Seriously Rarity, I don’t want to do this! I already did it with Applejack and I already know it can end!” Heartbreak’s face twitched in frustration and her tail whipped to the left. “Besides, you’re setting yourself up for failure in this argument by resorting to absolutes!”
“I knew it! You can’t name one instance! You come off as a, ‘Miss-Know-It-All,’ but under all that is just-” Rarity started as she got up and close to Heartbreak’s face.
“Fancy Pants,” Heartbreak replied in an emotionless monotone voice.
Rarity found herself caught off guard. “What... about,” She swallowed. “Fancy Pants?”
“The back and forth you played between Twilight’s birthday party and his garden party? Oh sure, Twilight accepted your dress and in the end you got off scott free, Twilight not even bringing up that you were about how you were going to skip her birthday party. But still,” Rarity blinked and backed away slightly. “Or how about at the end of Shining Armor and Cadances’ wedding? Who was the pony grabbing the flowers?”
“Oh come on. Those two moments are hardly worth mentioning. I mean, what mare wouldn’t be grabbing for those flowers?” Rarity said laughing slightly.
Heartbreak looked a bit darker as she walked forward. “Alright, how about the time that Spike gave you that gem as a gift from his heart, Rarity? Course you had to do a bit of manipulation to get him to give it to you. But that’s all too easy for you to do, a fluttering of your pretty eyes and a bit of a pout?”
Rarity started to back away as events from her life were thrown back in her face. “S-spike wanted to give that gem to me! And I made it into a beautiful-”
“You know how he feels about you, Rarity! That little dragon would do anything for you! Anything!” Heartbreak’s voice cracked slightly. “And you manipulated him!”
Rarity swallowed hard as she recalled the memories of what happened that day. “Yes, and I would do anything for him. As I would do anything for my friends! Why do you think I stood up for you when, Celestia-” She began rising up into Heartbreak’s face.
“No! You don’t get to play that card! Applejack already played that guilt-trip inducing card with me already and I will not have it flaunted up in my face again!” Heartbreak countered getting back up in Rarity’s face. “Yeah, I get that you stood up to her for me! Thank you! However. One! I don’t need it rubbed into my face every time I get cranky and two! You wanted to drop me off at the local Ponyville mental ward when I first arrived! But that is all besides the point! The point is that sometimes you are a selfish pony! And manipulative to boot! And I don’t like to be manipulated!”
Rarity frowned. “Humph! It seems to me that you are as much, if not almost as, manipulative as I am!”
“I am not! And even if that was true, how does it even make it right!?” Heartbreak countered heatedly. “Seriously though, I have been fighting the urge to use what I know about you ever since it caused too many conflicts with me and Applejack!”
“It seems to me that you only want to cause conflict with everypony encounter everywhere you go! Particularly with those ponies who only just want to help you!” Rarity stomped her hoof on the ground “Don’t you realize this entire time that you have been-”
Just then the train suddenly shuddered interrupting the horribly drawn out and pointless argument. Heartbreak found herself losing her balance and was thrown up against Rarity.
“What the fet?!” Heartbreak shouted, the two ponies slamming against a wall together.
“Heartbreak! For the love of Celestia! Language! I swear you talk like a sailoooor-” Rarity started before feeling another jarring take place on the cart.
Heartbreak’s anger quickly turned to fear as pressure of an odd g-force pushed on her body. “Rarity? Not that I wasn’t really enjoying our argument, but that’s not how trains are meant to feel like in Equestria, are they?”
As Rarity began to speak, the train jostled forward and the metal wheels started to shriek. “Eeek! No! No they are not!”
Rarity’s eyes went wide as the both of them felt the train starting to go sharply around a curve, pushing the two ponies closer. Heartbreak found herself involuntarily wrapping her hooves around her accidental teacher.
“Aaah! Rarity do something!” She shrieked at the top of her lungs.
Rarity would have pointed out the hypocrisy of chewing out a pony and then asking for their help, had it not been for the random jostle that sent her mind reeling and screaming in panic. “Me?! What do you want me to do!?”
“I don’t know! You’re a unicorn! You have magic! Teleport us! Stop the train! Something!” Heartbreak cried.
“Just who do you think I am!? Twilight Sparkle?! I don’t know any teleportation spells and stopping this train is far out of my reach!” Rarity shouted back.
“WHAT?! I CAN’T DIE, RARITY!” Heartbreak screamed grabbing Rarity’s cheeks in her ankles. “IF I DIE THEN EQUESTRIA EXPLODES!”
Rarity’s eyes went wide as she had just suddenly remembered that Heartbreak was a walking chaos bomb. “WHAT?! AAAAAAAAAA!” She almost instantly wrapped her hooves tighter around the tan pain in the flank in front of her. “I DON’T WANT TO DIE THIS UNFABULOUSLY!”
“I DON’T WANT TO DIE HUGGING YOU!” Heartbreak screamed at the top of her lungs.
2967356 See! That's what I am getting at with this chapter!
Sigh... I love it when Anthony rubs all the mane 6's wrong doings in their face. Always fun to see how they will react.
Also that last line
2967418 HB hates doing it. She doesn't -really- want to do it, but has a bad habit of doing it! Fluttershy and Pinkie are going to pose problems with this "Hey you did horribly wrong things and this is what they were." Note that she was practically -begging- Rarity not to go down this path.
And yes. The last lines? I like those.
I'd rather hug a different pony too... but Marshmellow makes a great impact absorber
2967376
I see you're point, ending both of them with a picture just doesn't seem right.
(scrolls back up to see the picture again)
Yep, face is priceless... wait... wait wait wait, is that a? Is that a Human?!? If I didn't look a 2nd time I never would have seen that. Is that in more pictures?
2967427
Yeah I know s/he doesn't want to... I just love it when s/he does
2967438 That's just another picture under the picture. Next time on the scans? I will be more careful of that.
2967494
I had I feeling that was it, though I'll admit I was hopping it was something more.
Meh, still cool effect. You might wanna remember this for some really cool pictures in the future.
2967506 Indeed....
It's going to just turn out to be some slight bumps in the tracks isn't it and then the whole trains gonna be looking at the pair of them all weird and funnily
2967610
2967628 um.. i thought they are the only ones in this car?
anyways. ive been meaning to ask HB's branding has been changing as the story goes. i have 2 theories.
1. the curse in the brand is getting weaker and will eventualy fade.
2. the more cracks its getting means its getting stronger.
feel free to just leave me hanging. lol.
2967815 Yes, Rarity and HB are the only two in the cart at this time, all the others who got on the train took their families to the dining cart. Bumbuck doesn't have a large population.
As far as the mark is going. You'll have to wait... And. See.
If she dies Equestria explodes?!
2967897
Somepony didn't pay attention in the first story.
Heartbreak is such a frustrating character. For someone who displays so much brutal self honesty, she/he has a startling lack of self awareness. Honestly, Heartbreak is the least likable character I've ever been this invested in. She/he truly is a miserable little sod, but it's so hard not to sympathise with her given how much of a victim she is. It's a situation where the punishment is massively disproportionate to the crime, but he still deserved to be punished.
The problem with HB is she just can't let anything go. The moment he even perceives an issue, he completely derails the conversation, turning it into childish bickering and petty name calling. If this is anything like the way he acted in the real world, it's no wonder he was such a miserable douche with so many people that hated him.
Ugh... I really like this story. Absolutely the best HiE I know of. But seriously! Somebody needs to punch Heartbreak in the face! Really hard!
2968011 You act like HB's always been like this. Maybe... just maybe HB was a nice individual. Anti-Carrot, you're committing a logical fallacy! You're taking the small subset of information and using it to extrapolate the whole.
HB is frustrating. But they've been through a lot in a short period of time. That can't be just 'shaken off and now we'll get used to our new life.'
it has be worked through. Struggled through. Next chapter is done by the way. Just needs proofing.
"There's something very important I forgot to tell you."
"What?"
"Whatever you do, don't let Heartbreak die."
"Why, what happens if Heartbreak dies?"
"It's bad."
"I'm a little fuzzy on this whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, 'bad'?"
"Try and imagine chaos spreading throughout the land, and then every particle in everypony exploding at the speed of light."
"Total chaotic reversal."
"Okay, that's bad."
2968049
Anti-carrot? That's a new one...
Anyway.
I know Heartbreak's been through a lot. That's why I'm still able to sympathize with him, despite her being the enormous prick he is. I saw her go through with it. It was messed up, and enormously unfair.
That said, it's still hard to see him in any other light than I see her here. Sure, he might not have been like that back on earth, and I do sorta get that impression, but right here, right now, the time and place I'm seeing her at this chapter... My goodness, what a douche bag. I simply could not put up with a man like that in real life.
2967610 I've heard that it's possible to derail a train by putting a coin at the right spot on the tracks.
2967915
I thought that was just her runaway panicky imagination! Let us never speak of this again....
2969517 Are Penpals really friends?
Is something missing here?
tainted*
I have to agree with Rarity about apologies, That would help.
2972521 HB Pychonauts.
....Well...that had to be one of the top cliffhangers I've ever read. Finally coming to a head with the spite issue....you do realize you use that word a little too often right? Makes Heartbreak sound hysterical, H.B.
i absolutely love these stories and i look forward to every chapter you are great and i thank you for these stories
also i heard this and it reminded me of this story
That last part tho
4693083 I lol'd.
That last part should NOT be read, while eating dinner, i almost choked to death.
i am a bad bad bad bad person......i laughed during this chapter.....
Was this supposed to be "some elaborate ruse"?