The Seasons

by Scootareader

Autumn - Part 1

“Brian, you have to get up!”

A young man, around 12 years of age, awoke with a start, his tousled blonde hair sticking out from his head to form cowlicks and spikes wherever they pleased. He quickly jumped out of bed, staggering sleepily as he blinked his bleary eyes in an attempt to make the world materialize around him.

“You've missed the bus, young man! That's double chores for today!”

The pre-teen looked at the hazy face of his mother through eyes that felt as if sand had been rubbed in them. “Mum, it's your fault for making me stay up so late waiting for dinner.”

The face of Brian's mother finally materialized in front of him. She had a look of shock on her face. “Why, I never! I got up just fine, why can't you?” She held up a finger at his attempted protest, saying, “No, no, I don't want to hear it. Just go get ready so I can take you to school. Oh, I'm probably going to be late to work....”

His mother finally gone, Brian got around to changing into his school clothes and tossing some food down his gullet before he departed the house and hopped into a white sedan. His mother hurriedly followed suit and situated herself in the driver's seat, asking her son if he was sure he'd gotten everything before starting the engine and backing out of the driveway.

Brian contented himself to look out the window of the vehicle as his mother silently cursed and lamented under her breath. It was another fairly typical day.

As she sped down the quiet road toward the highway that would lead her to the school most quickly, the mother decided she would skip the stop sign that segmented the two roads. She'd done this while in a hurry before; nobody drove around these parts this early in the morning, anyway.

Brian dully noted that the stop sign went by awfully quickly. He looked at his mother, saying, “We don't need to break the law, Mum.” He went back to maintaining his vigil over the side of the road as he saw a semi come speeding into him—

---

He was nowhere. Weightless.

He wasn't looking around, per se... but he could see things. He saw the whiteness he was floating around in. He felt like he was nothing, but he was wading through a swamp.

“Oh, now this won't do.”

He felt himself being sped quickly to somewhere else. He didn't feel as if limbs were moving, but it was like something was pushing him from behind. He couldn't look around; there was only the whiteness everywhere.

Eventually, something came to view in front of him. As the object loomed closer and closer, he began to pick out colors. It was wavy... green, blue, purple, and pink. It reminded him a little bit of toothpaste. Its body was white, and it was looking down at the ground, focusing on something. It had a long, white horn that glowed with a yellow light.

He was nearly on top of the thing before it finally looked up at him, the yellow light around its horn flickering off. It said in a kind, motherly voice, “Oh? And how did you get here?” Her smile seemed to dissolve any misgivings he may have felt.

A silence fell between the white thing with the wavy toothpaste and the ethereal Brian. He couldn't speak; he didn't have a mouth. The strange creature stared for a few more moments before she said, “Well?”

Brian focused on his name. “Brian.” It was almost like realizing he had a new body part. He didn't manipulate a mouth or anything, or even move, but he felt like he'd said it.

The creature smiled. “That's a very lovely name, but one I've never heard of before. And what brought you here today?”

“I... died.”

The toothpaste creature registered sadness in her eyes as she sighed. “And so young, it would seem. Just a moment.” The odd thing seemed to waver for a little bit, then almost totally disappear. He could see it talking just a tiny bit, but there was no way he could hear what the thing was saying.

A few moments later, the creature rematerialized, and another creature appeared a few seconds later. This one wasn't white; it was actually quite a dark purple. It had soft purple stuff that looked like hair. The white one said, “This seems like a good creature, don't you think, Luna?”

The purple one named Luna replied, “We shall see, Sister.” The new arrival now focused on Brian, her horn glowing, as she commanded, “Now, sleep.”

Brian felt himself go deeper into his mind.

---

He was dreaming of his morning. He watched as he groaned and woke up, the Brian inside the dream as annoyed with being woken up as he'd been just recently. He watched as his mother commanded him to prepare for school, and his half-baked excuses as to why he'd missed the bus just to get a bit of extra sleep.

A great sadness fell over the Brian observing his dream. He missed his mother already. She'd never get to see him or hear his voice ever again. As she went back to her bedroom to get ready for work, he tried to call out to her, but his voice no longer worked. She probably wouldn't be able to hear him anyway.

He rushed to the next dream. He was in the schoolyard, being picked on by one of the bigger kids. The Brian in the dream cried as the bully threw his books on the ground, tearing a few pages out of one of them before reaching into Brian's pocket and fishing out a few quarters. The bully yanked Brian's jacket off next, tossing it into a nearby tree. He then laughed and left Brian to try to recover from this.

He remembered how this ended, too. He had gone and talked to the principal about what the bully did. The principal told Brian that while the other student's actions were wrong, he'd never actually done anything to physically harm Brian, so the bully would be let off with just a warning this time. Never mind that Brian was in here weekly, complaining about the same thing; they never did anything about it. The only reason he still told anyone about the bullies was so the school would buy him lunch.

He was rushing to the next memory again. This time, he wasn't the one being bullied; it was a girl who the other kids said was “slow.” She seemed like a really nice person to him, but they put her in a bunch of classes separate from most of the other kids, and there was a really weird kid in her class who ate glue all the time.

There were two bigger girls making fun of the girl, telling her she was stupid and useless. The girl being tormented was curled into a ball and crying in the face of the onslaught the other two girls were giving her. It made his blood boil just to watch them.

As he watched this memory, the dream Brian was cursorily walking by in a nearby hallway, then slowed his walking as he heard one of the bullies fling an insult at the crying friend. He stopped, then redirected his movement toward the tormentors.

“Hey! You know what they call girls like you? Hags!” dream Brian spat. The observing Brian's mind swelled with pride as he watched himself defend the poor girl from two older aggressors.

The girls turned as one toward Brian with nasty sneers on their faces. One of them menacingly asked, “What did you just say?”

“I said, you should go soak your heads instead of being mean to her. She's a person; how could you act like that?”

The two bullies quickly surrounded dream Brian as he tried to back away, catching him by his backpack and picking him up as they carried him off to the ladies' restroom. He remembered them dunking his head in the toilet, then shoving his face in and making him drink the water before they left him there, throwing up water that he'd choked down.

He zoomed to another memory... no, this wasn't a memory. This was a dream he'd had before.

In his dream, there were a bunch of kids playing and laughing. He and his bully were playing hopscotch while the slow girl had lunch with him. His mom was smiling and happy instead of nagging him and always rushing everywhere. He was laughing and playing instead of crying and afraid.

He knew the world wasn't perfect, but... he was happy in his dreams, and that was enough for him.

---

The dream ended, and he found himself staring at Sister Toothpaste and Luna once again. The purple creature looked at him closely, then smiled and looked at the one with the colored wavy stuff. “He is of good heart, dear Sister.”

Sister Toothpaste smiled warmly. “That's good. I had a feeling this was a good pony.”

Pony?

Sister Toothpaste was talking again. “Young one, it doesn't matter where you come from, or how you came to be here; what matters is that you are of good heart. If you should so choose, my sister and I will grant you another life with us.”

Brian thought about it for a moment. “Is it like my old life?”

“If you're asking if there will still be unhappiness, yes. There will always be unhappiness wherever you go, and my sister and I are not promising a perfect life. However, there is still very much for you to do before your time comes, and we deem you worthy to live in our world.” Sister Toothpaste gave Brian another warm, reassuring smile.

“Can't I just go back?”

The smile faded from Toothpaste's face. “I'm afraid not. If you choose not to go with us... we don't know what will happen to you.”

Brian's mind was quickly made up. “Then I will.”

Sister Toothpaste smiled. “That makes me glad. Luna?”

The horns of the sisters glowed as they channeled power. They each fired a beam from their horn simultaneously, creating a mixed beam of yellow and purple, which was fired directly at where Brian perceived himself to be. He felt himself enveloped in the bright light....

---

Brian's eyes slowly opened. He looked up. He was in... a strange place. It looked like a bedchamber from a book. They never made rooms like these anymore.

“Hello, little colt.”

He turned his head in shock at the big white toothpaste creature looming over him, scrambling away immediately with his arms and legs. As he did so, he realized that his fingers weren't responding. As soon as he was a safe distance from Sister Toothpaste, he lifted his arm in front of his face.

It was flat on the end.

---

Slowly, rumors circulated through Canterlot concerning a skittish young colt who was living in the castle with Princess Celestia who went by the name of Briar Patch. To those gentleponies invited to Canterlot Castle who did see him at their fancy meals, he seemed quite polite and intelligent, if a bit shy.

Eventually, due to several inquiries as to the colt's education, it was decided they would send him to a public school several months after his first appearance. The Princess had considered private options, but she stated that she felt it would be best for Briar Patch if he were to go to public school to further encourage him out of his shell.

Nopony knew it yet, but this was where Briar Patch would meet his special somepony.

---

Briar Patch departed Canterlot Castle with infectious optimism. It was his first day of school in his new home of Equestria.

He'd been adjusting to his new home quite well. He liked his yellow coat and his orange mane. He liked his new mom. He liked all of the guard ponies he'd met. He even liked some of the few nobles who'd been invited to dine with the Princesses.

It wasn't the life he'd wanted, though. He asked Princess Celestia if he could go to public school, like he had in his previous life. She'd smiled and nodded her consent, and had him enrolled immediately.

Now he was finally going to get to meet other ponies like he wanted to. Today was going to be absolutely perfect.

He rushed through the front gate that he'd never been past prior to this and immediately halted, realizing he was somewhat lost. He reached into a small saddlebag he was wearing, sifting through it for a few moments. He found his lunch, an apple for the new teacher, a small assortment of pencils, a folder with some blank paper in it, and... aha! A map of Canterlot.

Briar Patch laid out the map he had, finding and poking a hoof at the school he was assigned to, saying to himself, “There, that's the place.” He immediately picked the map back up and stuffed it into its place within his saddlebag, sprinting once again along the streets of the robust city, his orange mane billowing out behind his sandy-colored coat.

He wound his way through the network of roads, becoming lost more times than he wanted to remember, continually having to consult his map and drawing looks from the nobility out for their morning strolls. He did his best to ignore them, as he knew how they would react to a poor-seeming colt speaking with them.

Eventually, however, Canterlot Central School for Happy Fillies and Colts loomed ahead. He halted at the front gate, took a few deep breaths, steeled himself for the coming day, and entered his new school.

He was expecting a school like his old one. He was expecting very little difference between his old world and Equestria. He was expecting to see and deal with bullies, antagonists, and aggressors.

He wasn't expecting to have to deal with it so quickly.

As Briar Patch trotted into the main corridor that ran in a square around his school, he caught a commotion in the corner of his eye. He immediately looked toward what was happening, taking everything in a glance: There was a small grey pegasus being belittled and degraded by a colt with a cutie mark of three money bags and an expertly styled mane, who was being accompanied by a filly, whose cutie mark resembled an upturned nose, and another colt, his cutie mark an empty wine glass.

The ringleader with the money bags was degrading and belittling the pegasus, who was curled into a ball, crying on the ground.

This was unacceptable. No living creature, pony or otherwise, deserved to be treated like this. He began walking purposefully toward the colt with the moneybags. “Hey! What's up with you, stinkin' rich?”

The colt with the moneybags turned toward Briar Patch. “I'm Actually Filthy, the son of Stinkin', but I thank you for... wait, who are you, commoner? And why are you talking to me?”

Briar Patch gave a knowing smile. “Briar Patch.”

“Uh-huh...” continued the snobby earth pony. “And what makes you think you have the right to address me?”

“I don't. You're just a bully, and I just can't stand to see a pony like you keep being mean to other ponies with your rude mouth. Now leave her alone, before you make me mad.”

The pony turned his nose up and gave a derisive snort. “And the common rabble comes to pull the other out of the ditch? Dirt cannot clean dirt, simpleton. What do you hope to do?”

Briar Patch smiled wistfully, losing focus on Filthy Rich and staring past him. “Change the world.” He sighed resignedly, then refocused his attention on the bully. “And you're making it dirty, not my friend.”

The pegasus visibly brightened at this statement, offering Briar Patch a weak smile. Her pale yellow eyes sought his, pleading for... something.

Their eyes met. The left eye of the pegasus then trailed down, looking at the ground. She seemed to think she'd done something wrong, so she closed her eyes, the frown once again marring her face as she cast her nose to the ground.

“And common ponies are most definitely not worthless!” Briar exclaimed, stomping his hoof on the ground as emphasis. He seemed to have lost interest in Filthy Rich, instead noticing the young pegasus filly who was crying on the ground. He trotted over to her, placing his hoof below her chin and lifting her face up to meet his. “Hey... you all right?”

The pegasus opened her eyes once again. One was pointed up while the other was pointed to the right. They seemed to converge together at the same time as they focused on the face of Briar Patch. “Mmhmm... now I am.”

Briar's heart leaped into his throat. He had never heard a voice so beautiful, so welcome, as he did just then.

Except... maybe once.

---

He was back at his old school. He'd confronted the bullies, standing up for someone. They insulted him a little bit, then left. He was alone with the girl that everyone called slow.

He'd walked over to her while she stared at the ground. He put his hand under her chin and tilted her face up towards his. He asked her, “Hey... you all right?”

The girl had replied, “Mmhmm... now I am.”

---

He had found her.

He spun around, looking at Filthy Rich once again. It was time to finish things.

“Y'know,” he started, cantering back to his newly found nemesis, “I can't change rich, snobby ponies to be better to other ponies. I will fight them every step of the way, though. You know why, Filthy?”

The smug colt tried to cut a noble pose, instead coming off as posh and uptight. “And why is that, simpleton?”

“Because you don't deserve to breathe Equestrian air, let alone share it with me or my friends.”

Filthy Rich's eyes suddenly bulged, and he looked back at Briar. “Take that back... you take that back right now.”

Briar smiled menacingly. “Make me.”

---

It wasn't often that Princess Celestia visited Canterlot Central School for Happy Fillies and Colts, but today was an exception.

She arrived to take Briar Patch home early. He had been sitting in the administration office for about ten minutes, not even having made it to his first class.

During those minutes, Briar Patch had been talking to a certain mare.

With the proper forms signed, the Princess of the Sun departed the school, her adopted colt in tow. Noting that nopony around, she whirled on him. “Why, Briar Patch? Why today of all days?”

The little colt smiled contentedly. “Derpy Hooves... or Ditsy Doo.”

Author's Note:

This took too long. I'm ashamed of myself.
--Scootareader

Comments

[Scootaloser]

I'm not normally a fan of human in Equestria, but this was still nice. I'll read the next chapter tomorrow... I need to go to bed.

[Albino pygmy rhino117]

I like the chapter and unlike the other comment I will read the next chapter right now because sleeping is for the weak. :)